


Silver and Gold

by MageWriter



Category: Glee
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-29
Updated: 2014-03-29
Packaged: 2018-01-17 10:56:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 28,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1385023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageWriter/pseuds/MageWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An old friend of Rachel's returns to Lima. Upon witnessing how her friend is treated, she decides things need to change and begins to bring Rachel out of the mold she has been cast in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: Rachel's Friend

Silver and Gold

Chapter 1

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver and the other gold.

I OWN NOTHING RELATED TO GLEE!!!!

* * *

“Mom!”

“Would you stop whining already?”

“Girls, knock it off!”

The two girls, one seventeen the other ten, turned to look at their mother. Their father was bringing in boxes and ignoring them and their arguing.

“Now, Gale, what is it you need?” Emily asked her younger daughter.

“Why did we have to move to Ohio?” Gale whined. “Why Lima? Why not Cincinnati or Columbus? Someplace where stuff actually happens?”

“This again?” Danny muttered. “I’ll be in my room, decorating. Call me when you’re setting up the kitchen.” She turned on her heel and shot back up the stairs.

“Danny! Get back down here and help your dad bring in boxes!” Emily called after her. She turned back to her youngest. “Gale, we already explained this to you both several times. Dad’s company transferred him back to Lima because he’s worked here before. It was easier for him to come back then to send someone new. Dad knows these people. He’s worked with them before.”

Danny rolled her eyes in her room as she listened to her mom and sister ‘discuss’ the move again. Danny hadn’t minded in the least when told that they were all uprooting from their home in Indianapolis to return to Lima, Ohio. She’d been ecstatic, because this meant the chance to physically reconnect with her best friend.

Roughly seven and a half years ago, her parents had moved them to Indiana because her dad had been promoted. Danny had hated the move then, knowing that she wasn’t one to make friends easily and that by moving she was leaving her friend to face their tormentors alone. Gale loved living in a big city where at least one of her friends was always having a party or inviting her along on some kind of outing. As for helping her dad bring in boxes, he’d already sent her up here to her new room to finish it.

She was almost done, the walls a dark blue with the trim black (because her mom refused to let her do it the other way). Once the walls were dry, her multiple posters (sitting rolled together in several tubes), pictures, and the hooks for her hat collection could go up. She grinned, living for projects like this. Her best friend lived to be on Broadway, she lived to design things. Danny couldn’t wait to start school on Monday, even if it was February and right after Valentine’s Day. They’d be done moving in, everything would be set up and not all that different from her former room. Plus, she’d be able to reconnect with her friend (a surprise she’d been saving because the girl had seemed so sad recently, this was one thing that would certainly cheer her up). They hadn’t actually seen each other in person since they were ten and Danny moved away.

“Mom wants you downstairs.” Gale had opened her door. The white outside contrasted brightly with the dark interior of the room. “Jeeze, dungeon much? Why can’t you like anything girly?”

“Gale, go finish your own room,” Danny replied, “I finished painting it last week in case you forgot.” It had taken forever to find a way to get rid of the ugly pink track suite her mother had given her for Christmas, painting Gale’s room lavender and white had done it. If some of the ‘paint drops’ looked more like brush strokes…she wasn’t admitting anything.

“Mom should ground you for ruining that outfit. It was perfect for training.” Gale sneered at her.

“You like it, you take it out the trash,” Danny replied, annoyed. “And stay out of my room Shorty,” she ruffled Gale’s hair as she went past.

Chuckling at her little sister’s shrieking, she went downstairs to help her mom set up the kitchen and discuss the plan for Monday. Danny did not want to try out for the cheerleading squad, the track team, or any other school sports team. She would join any club dealing with martial arts, kendo, dancing, design, or technical theater. Emily wasn’t happy, but she had Gale to nurture into a mini-her. Danny just wanted to be herself and do what made her happy, thus why she was following in her Dad’s footsteps.

“Why your father wouldn’t let us move into the Carmel School District, I don’t understand. McKinley is hardly competition.” Emily started in. “It has far more in the way of academics and athletics. You could do so well there.”

“I want to go to McKinley,” Danny replied. “It’s smaller and less prestigious, and I don’t want to go to another big school.” They’d had this argument before. “Dad agrees with me, besides, that coach Gale is always gushing over works at McKinley. Remember, that’s the one thing she was happy about because she could attend her summer cheer camp to begin her way in the high school hierarchy.”

Emily sighed, going quiet for a few moments. “I assume you’re going to look up that friend of yours, what was her name again?”

“Rachel Berry,” Danny replied, rolling her eyes. “Mom, we had an agreement. You would stay out of my friendships and I would give up the bedroom.”

‘The bedroom’ meant that instead of taking the room George Grant had chosen for his eldest, she’d take the smaller one. Giving the larger room with its own bathroom and walk-in closet to Gale was not a big loss in Danny’s mind because she liked smaller spaces.

“I know, and you’ve done more then what that agreement called for,” Emily agreed, since the agreement had not included Danny painting the entire space however Gale demanded nor moving things in and making certain it was to the younger girl’s specifications.

“Then there’s nothing to talk about.” Danny replied, finishing her box. “Pantry’s done, I’m going to go and finish my room. Night Mom.” She returned upstairs and slammed her door.


	2. Chapter 2: Thing's Begin

Silver and Gold

Chapter 2

I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!

Monday dawned irritatingly bright. Emily took Gale to the Elementary school, leaving Danny to drive herself. Not that Danny cared, she loved her car even if most Sunday’s she could be found working on it in some way.

She pulled into the gas station nearest the school for two reasons. The obvious one was for gas, the second was because she’d forgotten her lunch and she never ate cafeteria food under any circumstance. She was toying with the idea of getting a slushy when several boys wearing lettermen jackets entered and went to the machines.

“You got the list?” The first boy asked as several girls wearing Cheerio uniforms (hard to miss when the word was spelled out across the back of their jackets) entered the small store.

“Right here,” one girl held up a piece of paper. “Cherry only, it is the Monday after V-Day after all.” She was grinning and it wasn’t nice.

Danny had a very bad feeling about this. She snatched the first Pepsi© and bottle of water within reach and went to pay, paying for her gas as well before hightailing it back to her jeep. She had one of those feelings where she knew something bad was going to happen and she wasn’t going to be able to stop it.

No matter how much Danny wanted to stop what was going to happen (whatever it was), she still had to meet with the principal and get her schedule and locker assignment. Once she had those, she wondered the halls with a map, finding her classrooms and her locker among the growing numbers of students in the halls.

How was she ever going to find Rachel in this? What if she didn’t go to McKinley after all? What if she had moved and hadn’t told her? Danny was beginning to feel like an idiot. She should have just told Rachel she was coming back and made arrangements to meet with her friend. What if Rachel didn’t want to be her friend anymore?

“Morning Berry,”

Danny looked up, broken out of her thoughts. ‘Berry’ wasn’t a common last name to her knowledge, especially in a small town like Lima. Looking for the petite brunette, instead she found several of the jocks from the gas station.

Suddenly Danny’s bad feeling from before returned full force and she knew, without a doubt, that it involved her friend and not in a good way. Shifting her bag on her shoulder, she surged forward in just enough time to see them throw the slushies. Uncaring for herself, she tackled Rachel to the ground.

The slushies splattered all over Danny, the girl gasping at the cold wetness the seeped through her shirt and jeans. Her bag had landed beneath Rachel.

“Hey Ray, long time no see.” She muttered, standing up and helping the girl do the same. The rest of the students were watching them in shocked surprise at what the new girl had done.

“Danny?” Rachel looked at the taller girl as if she were a ghost.

“Surprise?” Danny asked, opening her arms.

“DANNY!” Rachel attached herself to her friend and began to babble questions at her.

“Whoa, slow down, first, bathroom so I can clean up?” Danny asked. “I just need to get to my locker and get my gym clothes.”

“Right,” Rachel nodded and grabbed Danny’s hand. “Thank you for intervening, but I’m afraid that it won’t have done any good. They’ll make a target of you now.” Rachel continued to babble as Danny went to her locker, got her clothing, and let Rachel lead her to the nearest bathroom.

“Ray, I don’t care.” Danny told her as she changed. “Why do you let them do that to you? How long as it been going on?”

“Since the first day of freshmen year,” Rachel admitted. “My dads’ protested, but after the first time it wasn’t worth telling them it was still happening.”

“ _Why_ didn’t you tell me?” Danny stepped out of the stall in her gym clothes, her wet clothing in her bag. Thankfully, the red wouldn’t stain the black fabric too badly and if it did she just had more ‘project clothing’.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were returning to Lima? You are here to stay, right?” Rachel deflected.

Danny looked at her. “I was aiming to surprise you, and I am here to stay until after I graduate.” She grinned. “I’m already working on my application to NYSID, how’s yours to Julliard coming along?”

“It’s coming,” Rachel replied.

“Topic isn’t done Ray, why didn’t you tell me?” Danny asked again. “Did you think I wouldn’t care? That I wouldn’t believe you? What else haven’t you told me?”

Rachel stared at her friend. She remembered how much Danny cared, how protective the other girl was of the tiny brunette in grade school. She remembered what it felt like to have a friend who dealt with her craziness with laughter and encouragement, who didn’t mess with her emotions and who had dreams just as big as her own. She felt the tears well up and tried to stop them. Danny pulled her into a hug.

“Go ahead and cry Ray,” Danny whispered, “let it go, I’m here, I’ll catch you.” She began humming softly, holding Rachel as the girl cried.

The first bell rang, signaling that they had five minutes to get to class. Rachel laughed a little, using the edges of her sweater to dry her eyes, winching a little at the roughness of the yarn.

“Only you can get away with humming _My Favorite Things_ and not come out sounding tacky.” She told her friend, and that was a comforting thought, with a grin.

“It was either that or _Getting to Know You_ ,” Danny joked. “Hey, not a musical genius here, that’s your area of expertise.” She smiled. “Please tell me you have US History with Mr. Fern first period.”

Rachel nodded. “Let’s go before we’re late.”

The two girls, one tiny brunette and the other taller midnight haired, walked down the hallways as if neither had ever been slushied. They managed to get to class unmolested. Rachel and Danny did that for most of the day. With the classes they didn’t share, Danny charmed the teacher into giving Rachel passes because the girl was showing her around and was even going out of her way to do so.

* * *

Lunch arrived and Danny dragged Rachel out to her jeep.

“I don’t have any food,” Rachel protested, “and we are not allowed to leave the premises for any non-school related trips.”

“We aren’t going anywhere,” Danny assured her. “I have food, you can have some.”

“I did tell you that I went from vegetarian to vegan, correct?” Rachel asked, knowing that Danny was one of those people who could eat anything and everything and never gain a pound. She was, or had been, known for experimenting with different food combinations.

“Yes, and I have fruit,” Danny told her, “and you can look at my other goodies to see if you’ll eat any of it.”

Rachel was stunned at the amount of food Danny laid out before her. “Did you buy out the gas station?”

“No,” Danny shook her head. “Are you going to lecture me if I offer you soda to drink?” She looked at Rachel.

“Soda is not good for the vocal cords.” Rachel replied.

“Ray, I don’t think anyone’s ever proven that as fact.” Danny told her, cutting the girl off before she could start one of her ranting lectures. “But, I have water.” She handed over the bottle. “Pick and enjoy, we still have twenty minutes.”

Rachel enjoyed lunch that day far more than she usually did. She hadn’t really had anyone to eat lunch with her since the last day she’d had school with Danny Grant. They talked mostly of insignificant things, the things people spoke about with a friend one hadn’t seen in years. It was wonderful, in Rachel’s opinion.

It wasn’t until the bell rang to signal the end of lunch that they stopped talking. They had to rush to get back inside to class, thankfully they were both headed to Spanish and it wasn’t far from the entrance they were closest to.

Rachel giggled with Danny as they slid into seats moments before the bell rang to signal the beginning of class.

“Close call,” Danny told her, “where’s the teacher?”

“Mr. Schue is normally late,” Rachel told her, “he should be here in a few minutes.”

“Didn’t see you at lunch Berry,” Punk slid into the open seat besides Rachel. “Who’s your friend?”

“Noah Puckerman?” Danny asked, looking at Rachel. “You forgot to mention he’d shaved his head.”

“Do I know you?” Puck asked, wondering how the girl knew him.

Rachel and Danny exchanged looks. Danny was taller, obviously older, more muscled, and puberty had treated her well. All the baby fat that she’d carried in elementary school had faded away to curves and defined cheekbones instead of pudgy roundness. Danny didn’t think she really looked all that different. Rachel did and didn’t, because Danny was still Danny no matter how she looked.

“Depends,” Danny replied, “does the comment ‘I only eat the orange ones’ ring any bells?”

“Danny Grant?” Puck asked, staring at the girl in amazement. “When the hell did you get back in town?” He only knew the girl from the times she had accompanied Rachel to Temple and the odd Hebrew class, but she was the kind of person who left an impression.

“Last week,” she replied. “I was setting up the house while my parents and little sister came down with our stuff, so we started school today.”

Mr. Schuester walked in before Puck could say anything else. Rachel introduced Danny, who waved at him with a cheeky grin before introducing herself in perfect Spanish. Santana, in the background, muttered ‘show off’. Danny just smiled and took the book Mr. Schuester handed her.

* * *

 

The only class they had an issue in was gym, when Coach Sylvester yelled at Danny for not changing into her gym clothes.

“I am in my gym clothes,” Danny replied once the woman had stopped yelling, “after the appalling slushy attack this morning, these were the only items of clothing I had to change into. If someone has a problem with that, then maybe they shouldn’t throw slushies at people.” Danny went into her rant, a familiar one to Rachel even if she hadn’t heard it given in years.

She watched as Danny barely breathed throughout her own ranting lecture. Danny hated bullies and people who let them get away with it. She was just like Rachel, only she didn’t have Rachel’s insecurities. At least, that was the way Rachel saw it. Danny had never doubted her talents or her belief that her dreams were perfectly reasonable. The girl also had the belief that her friends could achieve their dreams, so she was also Rachel’s biggest fan and protector.

“Impressive,” Sylvester remarked when Danny finished her rant. “Now, run laps!”

Danny mockingly bowed as she would in her karate class to her sensei. “As you wish Coach Sylvester,” she took off around the gym.

Not wanting the crazy blonde woman to yell at her next, Rachel took off after her friend. Danny slowed down to pace herself to Rachel’s speed.

“What was that?” Rachel asked. “Do you _want_ to have every Cheerio assigned to make your life miserable?”

“They can try,” Danny replied, “I’ll deal with it if it happens. Now, how do we trick the jocks in this school into a humiliating defeat?”

“What do you mean?” Rachel demanded, not daring to stop. She could feel Coach Sylvester glaring at them.

“I mean, those jock-bitches who think they’re the rulers of the school.”

“They do rule the school,” Rachel replied. “Doing anything to them will just make it worse. Kurt left because Karofsky threatened to kill him.”

Danny frowned. That just wasn’t right. Maybe Carmel would have been the better school…she shook her head. Carmel didn’t have Rachel. She’d had to abandon her friend once, she wasn’t going to do it again.

“Any plans after school?” Danny changed the subject.

“Glee club, we’re still trying to come up with our Regionals set list.” Rachel explained to her what had happened and why they couldn’t use _Sing_ by MCR like they’d originally planned.

“Sounds like fun,” Danny replied, grimacing as she spotted some of the people lounging in the bleachers. “Wanna race?”

“Not fair,” Rachel retorted, “you’re faster.”

“Come on,” Danny grinned, “Where’s the fire? I know you’re not overly athletic, but you can’t have changed that much.” She let her grin drop. “Do they scare you that much that you’re afraid to be who you actually are?”

Rachel looked away, ashamed. Danny didn’t know. She wouldn’t understand. How could she? Danny hadn’t been around for the last seven years, and Rachel didn’t want to admit that she was weak, no matter how strong she tried to appear.

“Ray…” Danny trailed off. Then she stopped and pulled Rachel to a stop beside her. “Okay, then we’re going to fix this. We’re going to show them exactly who we are and what they can’t have.”

“What? Them? They?” Rachel asked in confusion, bewildered at having come to such an abrupt stop.

“All the idiots at this school and this town that thinks so little of you.” Danny told her. “Think of it this way,” she knew this, if anything would get her friend motivated, “If you can’t do it now, how are you going to do it on Broadway? This is the rehearsal, the practice run before showing the world what we can do.” She smiled. “So what do you say, shall we inform them that we’re bringing it or surprise the hell out of them?”

“Language,” Rachel replied before letting herself smile. “Surprise them.” Finn, the jocks like Karofsky, the other members of glee, the teachers, none of them would know what hit them. With Danny besides her, it would be worth it.

“Alright then, let’s start with glee.” Danny grinned. “After that, we’re hitting your closet.”

 


	3. Chapter 3: Changes

Silver and Gold

Chapter 3

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

 

Danny followed Rachel into the choir room. She wasn’t impressed, but she fell onto the piano and stroked the keys lovingly.

“My piano doesn’t arrive for another week,” she told Rachel when the girl giggled. “I’m stuck with my keyboard until then and it’s not the same. My babies came with me though.”

“Babies?” Rachel smiled. “Haven’t you outgrown that tiny thing?”

Danny laughed. “Yo-yo is hung in a place of honor, my new babies are Star, a sweet acoustic Grandpa bought me, and Baby Luv, my laptop.”

“How is your grandfather?” Rachel asked, remembering from one of her friend’s more recent e-mails that Danny had been worried about the man’s health.

“He’s doing a lot better,” Danny told her, trying out the piano. “He’s actually planning on moving back here during the summer. Mom’s turning the guest room into his room.”

“That must be nice.” Rachel had never met her grandparents or any of her other family. Her own mother didn’t even want her.

“Hey, none of that,” Danny arranged her hands, “pick up one of the guitars.”

Rachel did, sitting in a chair as she tuned it. They were early, so there was no one to walk in on them. Danny played several keys until Rachel nodded, happy with the way the guitar sounded. Danny smiled, beginning one of her favorite warm-up songs.

_You are my sunshine,_

_My only sunshine,_

_You make me happy,_

_When skies are gray…_

They sang, Rachel grinning as Danny ran through several more songs that Rachel had hardly touched since she’d left elementary school. It was only when Danny switched instruments with Rachel and told her to just listen that Rachel realized how much Danny had kept up with her own musical interests as well as the Broadway stuff.

Unlike Rachel, Danny loved country, techno, dance, all sorts of musical genres that Rachel knew but rarely paid much attention to. Danny adjusted a few strings then began to play.

_…Cause when push comes to shove_

_You taste what you're made of_

_You might bend, till you break_

_Cause it’s all you can take_

_On your knees you look up_

_Decide you've had enough_

_Y_ _ou get mad you get strong_

_Wipe your hands shake it off_

_Then you Stand, Then you stand…_

She let the music fade away, smiling as Rachel applauded her friend.

“ _Stand_ , by Rascal Flatts,” Danny told her. “You said that you needed an anthem for Regionals, right?”

“Yes, I want us to write our own.” Rachel told her. “But no one else agreed with me. I wrote a few, but they weren’t very good.”

“Okay…” Danny nodded as she followed Rachel’s train of thought. “But I don’t understand. We used to write songs all the time.”

“That was different,” Rachel shrugged. “I’ve tried, what we used to do just doesn’t work anymore.”

“Then you’re trying too hard,” Danny told her. She looked at the clock. “Shouldn’t the others be here by now? Three thirty, right?”

Rachel looked at the clock, frowning. It was almost four o’clock. “This is very unprofessional. Not even the band is here.”

“The auditorium?” Danny suggested.

Rachel nodded, closing the piano and leading the way. No one was there, so they went back to the choir room. No one was there yet either, so they grabbed their things and went in search of people.

They found Puck just coming out of the locker room. “Didn’t anyone tell you Berry? Mr. Schue cancelled today. Check your phone.” He walked away.

Rachel dug out her phone and checked it. There weren’t any messages or missed calls. Danny hugged her, pissed.

“Come on,” Danny took her hand and began dragging her outside to her jeep. “We’re going to your house. Starting tomorrow, McKinley is going to regret ever treating you this way.”

* * *

 

Tuesday wasn’t much different from Monday. It was still bright, cold, and just a little windy. Danny pulled into Rachel’s driveway and honked her horn.

“Come on Ray!” Danny shouted out her window. They were running late. Danny was glad that Rachel’s dads’ weren’t home.

“Coming!” Rachel ran out the house, locking the door quickly before turning to face Danny.

Danny whistled. “Nicely chosen.”

Rachel was dressed in black jeans, pink converse, and a bright pink t-shirt with a winged heart and treble clef in black crossed over on the front. She had her hair pulled back, a single stripe dyed pink and braided to hang beside her face.

“Thank you,” Rachel climbed into the truck, tugging on the braided stripe. “Are you sure about this? How is this going to look at all professional?”

“It’s not,” Danny admitted, pulling her own braid out from where she had tucked it behind her ear. “We are, however, teenagers. Teenagers are allowed to experiment.” Her braid was bright blue. She’d taken great satisfaction at touching it up the day before, rinsing the temporary black dye out of it with relish.

“My dads’ aren’t going to like this,” Rachel bit her lip in thought. “They’ll be home next week.”

“Ray, don’t worry about it.” Danny told her. “We can always dye it back. It’s only a single stripe, not like we dyed your whole head.”

“Which we are _not_ going to do,” Rachel told her firmly. “I can’t believe your dad was going to let you.”

“My dad would let me get away with murder,” Danny replied. “Mom, on the other hand, would blow a gasket.” She grinned. “Which is why I’m waiting to do it until after graduation. She can’t do anything to me when I’m in New York and she’s here in Lima.”

Rachel shook her head. Danny had chosen their outfits to match as closely as possible. Her jeans were black, her shirt and converse were dark blue. Her shirt displayed a snarling tiger in black, the blue filling in where the orange would normally be.

“You’re encouraging delinquency.” Rachel rolled her eyes.

“Only in myself,” Danny grinned, “and you.” She ducked as Rachel tried to swat her arm. “Eh, just wait to see the looks on their faces.” She smiled knowingly. “Besides, this isn’t the first time you’ve striped your hair pink. Remember second grade?”

Rachel got out of the car. “That was for Halloween! It shouldn’t count!”

“Oh, but it does,” Danny replied smugly. “Now, let’s make an entrance.”

Rachel led the way into the school, head held high. Her coat was open and Danny, strutting behind her in a tan leather jacket wearing a smirk, caused the students to move apart so they could walk through. They made it to Rachel’s locker without incident, Danny standing guard and glaring at anyone who got to close.

“Got yourself a girlfriend man-hands?” Santana waltzed up to them with Brittany in tow.

“Man-hands?” Danny looked at Rachel. “Is she talking about herself?”

The entire hallway froze to watch what would happen next. Rachel looked wide eyed between the two.

“S doesn’t have man-hands,” Brittany looked confused.

Danny looked at the blonde. “I know she doesn’t, but neither does Rachel.” She looked between the two girls. “Look, why don’t you take _your_ girlfriend and leave us alone.” She smiled brightly. “Or, if you aren’t dating, can I take you out to dinner tomorrow?” Danny took Brittany’s hand.

“Mine!” Santana growled, yanking Brittany to her and kissing the girl. Then she dragged the happy blonde down the hallway and away from the new girl who _dared_ to think she could ask Brittany out on a date.

“Wow…” Rachel looked up at her friend as the stunned students began to whisper and move again. “You just…how did you? _Are you trying to get killed_?” Rachel could imagine what Santana would do to Danny once she calmed down enough to think of revenge.

“Who were they anyway?” Danny asked, curious.

“Santana Lopez and Brittany Peirce,” Rachel told her. “Santana’s one of the girls who rule McKinley. She hates me, and she’s going to _kill_ you or do something entirely worse to get revenge for you outing her to the entire school.”

Danny rolled her eyes. “One hallway is hardly the _entire_ school.” She replied. “The gossips will actually spread what happened, not me.” She cocked her head. “What do you mean _outing_? I thought it was glaringly obvious that they were together?”

“Yes, to everyone _but_ Santana.” Rachel explained as they went to Danny’s locker. “Between them, they’ve probably slept with every boy in the school. People of the LBGT community don’t do well here. This could ruin her, and she’ll blame me.”

“Hey,” Danny grabbed Rachel’s shoulders. “I won’t let her do that. I’ll apologize if and when she tries to start something. What’s done can’t be undone, and eventually she’ll realize that.”

“Were you serious about asking Brittany out?” Rachel asked, wondering if her friend actually had any interest in the blonde.

“She’s cute,” Danny shrugged, grinning. “Remember, I like girls and _only_ girls. I’m out and proud, no matter _what_ anyone else might think of it.”

They walked to class without being bothered. Danny had to subtly remind Rachel a few times that she had the power, not her tormentors. One day of seeing her friend treated like a powerless nobody was enough for Danny, especially because she knew Rachel Barbra Berry was _anything_ but powerless. She just needed to be reminded of that.

Rachel couldn’t help it as she smiled. So far, today had gone by fairly well. While no one had said anything directly to her, she’d heard them comment on her new look. Especially the boys, which made her blush sometimes at their comments. By the time lunch had arrived, she could feel her confidence solidifying. She hadn’t felt like that in years.

“Hey, so where are we eating today?” Danny asked, swinging her lunch box back and forth.

“Choir room,” Rachel told her. “I normally practice during lunch.”

“Awesome, we can have a jam session.” Danny grinned, she was always grinning. “Does anyone else in glee join you?”

“My fellow glee members barely tolerate my presence,” Rachel replied evenly. Danny was her friend, she didn’t need to prove anything to her.

“Still doing Marilyn Monroe?” Danny remarked, taking Rachel’s binder and looking through it for any pieces she knew as well as to see any that she could learn for a new duet.

“Yes, in a way.” Rachel sighed. “The binder cover you made me with the quote on it was ruined during the first slushy facial I received.”

“I can make you another one, got your gold stars on you?” Danny asked, mentally calculating her limited art supplies she had on hand at school.

“Always,” Rachel replied.

“Good, can I have a sheet? I don’t have any gold, just red, blue, silver, and green.” She was already designing the new cover in her head.

“Of course,” Rachel pulled out a half sheet of stars and handed them over. She’d have to go and get more during the weekend, she realized as she took count of how many full sheets she had left.

“Excellent, now,” Danny held to choir room door open, “piano or guitar?”

“You take the guitar,” Rachel told her, claiming a seat at the piano. “Did you choose something?”

“I noticed you had _Tango: Maureen_ in there, shall we?” Danny asked, dragging a chair over so she could see the sheet music as well. “I’ll take Mark.” Danny’s voice tended to take on a masculine-like quality when she sang, although she had enough vocal control that she could change it if she wished.

In answer, Rachel began playing. Danny quickly picked up the pattern and started them off. Rachel smiled as they finished, both of them jumping when they heard applauding coming from the open door. As one, they turned to look. Ms. Pillsbury was standing there.

“That sounded really great girls.” She told them. “Who’s your friend Rachel?” Emma hardly recognized Rachel. She’d never seen the girl so genuinely happy, never mind the pink-stripe in her hair and the difference in clothing.

Rachel smiled broadly. Even if Ms. Pillsbury wasn’t a very good guidance counselor, she still supported glee club and Rachel honestly liked the older woman.

“This is Danny Grant, she just moved back to Lima recently.” Rachel introduced the girl beside her. “Danny, this is Ms. Emma Pillsbury. She’s our school guidance counselor.”

“Nice to meet you ma’am,” Danny nodded. “We’re sorry if we disturbed you, I thought we’d closed the door.”

“Oh no!” Emma shook her head. “You aren’t disturbing me, I was just looking for Mr. Schuester.” Had Will seen the difference in his star singer?

“We have Spanish with him next period,” Rachel told her, “but we haven’t seen him since class yesterday.” She frowned. “I was not informed that glee club had been cancelled yesterday.”

Emma sighed. It was really no wonder that Rachel was always demanding attention, with the way she was treated. Emma could relate to the girl, even if Emma herself had been basically the opposite of Rachel (bar the popularity standing, they were equal there) in high school. Emma, at least, had had a few friends. She had to speak to Will about how the man was treating his own ‘kids’. He shouldn’t be letting the others walk all over Rachel like they did. What would Will do if Rachel decided to transfer like Kurt had felt he was forced to do?

“I’ll look in his classroom then, thank you girls.” She smiled at them. “Danny, were you thinking of joining glee club?”

“Yes ma’am,” Danny replied. She turned back to Rachel. “ _Santa Fe_? I think we can do it with just two people.”

Rachel nodded. “Would you like to join us Ms. P?” Rachel knew the woman could sing, she’d heard her do so with Mr. Schuester. “Would you mind Danny?”

Danny smiled, “not at all. Should I take Collins’ part?”

Emma smiled, joining them. She wasn’t familiar with the song, but this was an opportunity to observe this new Rachel Berry. Or was it old? Or was it that this was the Rachel that very few people got to see? Cautiously, she pulled another chair up so she could read the sheet music. Rachel nodded to Danny to begin singing, Rachel taking Angel’s part and Emma added in backup melody.

Once they were finished, Emma bid them goodbye so she could use the rest of the lunch period to find Will. Danny closed the binder and instead placed an orange into Rachel’s hands. They ate, comparing songs that they could adjust to both guitar and piano in order to blow away the competition as duet partners.

By the time the bell rang to end lunch, they had decided on several songs to work on. Including some that could be worked into a group number for Regionals if (and Danny was fully behind her) they couldn’t convince the club to do original songs. Danny loved the idea, having insisted that Rachel could use it as practice. After all Barbra Streisand and Idina Menzel had their own albums out, why couldn’t that be Rachel one day?

Rachel didn’t say a single word to Mr. Schuester during Spanish. She steadfastly refused to answer any questions. Grinning throughout the entire class, Danny took delightful pleasure in projecting her voice to make it appear to be coming from different places in the room.

* * *

 

Gym class proved to be better than the day before, mostly because Coach Sylvester didn’t have anything specific to yell at them about. When she released them to free time after running them around the gym for ten minutes, Danny tugged Rachel over to a set of mats.

“Spar?” She asked, tossing Rachel onto the mats.

“I haven’t taken a defense class in years,” Rachel told her.

“So, dance then,” Danny set up and kicked.

Rachel reacted, ducking and spinning away. She shared Danny’s grin as the taller girl got her warmed up. Even though she rarely used the lessons she’d learned years ago, her body had not forgotten them entirely. Danny won, but Rachel found she wasn’t put out by it. Danny thrived on the martial arts, she did dance simply to appease her mother and because originally she’d taken lessons with Rachel in tap and ballroom. Rachel had been dragged to a karate lesson by Danny in kindergarten, finding that if she thought about it the right way, it was just another dance.

“New girl! Midget!” Sylvester stormed over to them. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Sparring ma’am,” Danny replied, helping Rachel up from where Danny had thrown her. “I’ve been in various martial arts classes since I could walk, more or less. Rachel’s been in dance lessons that long.”

Sylvester glared at them both, a plan already forming in her mind on how to win Nationals the coming year. She sized them up. Midget was small enough to be a flyer and she wasn’t so bad when she was being quiet. New Girl clearly had muscle and she tossed Midget around easily enough.

“My office after school,” she commanded, turning away to yell at the other slackers in the class.

Danny exchanged looks with Rachel. “Did we just get invited to the Devil’s lair?”

Rachel nodded slowly. “I am afraid we have…and I believe we should be very, very scared.”

“Yea…” Danny nodded slowly. “Go again or showers?”

“Again,” Rachel decide, knowing that if she wanted to catch up to Danny she could only do that with practice.

“Then guard,” Danny replied, coming at her again.

 


	4. Chapter 4

Silver and Gold

Chapter 4

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

 

After school, the two girls made their way to the trophy infested office of the Cheerios’ coach. Sue Sylvester was waiting for them. She had two uniforms, permission forms, and physical exam forms waiting for them.

“I’m not a cheerleader,” Danny said the second she saw the uniforms. Her sister was going to blow a gasket if she came home with the uniform in her possession.

“You hated my tryout last year,” Rachel said a beat later, staring at the uniform as if it were going to bite her. “You wouldn’t even _let_ me tryout last year.”

Sue was amused by their fear. “You’re a Cheerio if I say you are.” She told them.

“Yea, sure,” Danny nodded, “but I’m declining the invite, sorry ma’am, but my sister’s the cheerleader, not me. I’d rather be playing football or something.”

“Please don’t do this to us,” Rachel asked her, just imagining the torment Santana and Quinn would put her through if she showed up in the uniform. She could already hear the comments the jocks and other disgusting males (such as Jacob Ben Israel) would throw at her. She’d never get the white part clean after the first slushy facial.

“I don’t care,” Sue told them. “Get the forms filled out, make sure the uniform fits, and be prepared for cheer camp this summer. Starting in the fall, you will both wear those as official Cheerios.”

“ _Why_?” The girls asked as one in despair. This could only be humiliating. They danced, they (Rachel sometimes rather reluctantly) participated in martial arts, they sang and played two different instruments, they each had their own individual dream that would garner them fame in their futures. Nowhere in any of that was ‘be a cheerleader’. Danny was having flashbacks of watching the film _But I’m a Cheerleader!_ with her dad when trying to tell him she was gay. Rachel’s mind was coming up with the multiple ways her tormentors were going to bully her now. She was who she was, being a Cheerio wasn’t going to change that.

“Despite myself, I found what you were doing in gym impressive. I want to add it to a routine that will dominate Nationals and bring the Cheerios back from their unfortunate and humiliating defeat.” She told them. “You don’t have an option here.” She slammed matching packets of information down in front of them. “I expect all of this to be read, signed, and otherwise taken care of by Monday.”

They stared at her.

“Dismissed!” She yelled at them.

Like she expected them to, they took the pile of things and raced out of the room as if the hounds of hell were on their heels. They didn’t stop running until they’d reached the safety of the choir room. No one was there yet, which was good as they stuffed everything into their bags.

* * *

 

“Oh my gods, that woman needs a shrink.” Danny breathed out softly, as if she were afraid Sylvester would hear her. “Has she always been like that?”

Rachel nodded her head. “Yes, she’s always been an insanely competitive, monumentally insulting, compulsively controlling slave driver who’s determined to destroy glee club.” She said it shakily. “Did that really just happen? Did she really just…just…”

“Make us into her unwilling minions?” Danny finished for her. “Yea, she did.” Then she was grinning again. “I think I just came up with the perfect plan on how to make this work for us.”

“How?” Rachel demanded.

“Well, everyone will expect us to act like the current jocks and Cheerios do.” Danny explained. “So, we’re going to act like the exact opposite, more or less. We have until fall semester begins to plan this out, and you’re the best I know when it comes to doing that.”

Rachel’s eyes gleamed. What better way to get back at the bullies then to undermine them at their own game? Show them that ‘the losers’ were better because of the way they acted and treated others? It would take careful planning… _very_ careful planning. Rachel knew very well just how good she was at that, plus Danny was good at pointing out flaws and working in back-up and alternative plans.

“The school won’t know what hit it,” Danny told her. “Now, let’s get started. I chose this,” she handed over some sheet music, “for my tryout. What do you think?”

Rachel looked over the song, humming it to herself. “Do you have choreography?”

“Yep, worked on it last night.” Danny assured her. “Maybe not as risqué as what Mimi is meant to do on stage, but sexy enough I’ll get a reaction out of the guys.”

Rachel snickered. “So, when are you going to tell them?”

“That I’m gayer then a bag of skittles?” Danny clarified, earning the giggle she always got from Rachel when she said it. Her dads’ always got a laugh out of it as well. “Oh, after the song when Noah tries to hit on me again.”

Rachel laughed then, imagining the look on Noah’s face when Danny gleefully informed him of her sexual orientation. One of Danny’s friends in Indianapolis had recorded her turning down a guy once and posted the video on Facebook. If Noah reacted anything like that guy had, then they were all in for a treat.

That was how the others found them, giggling as they both warmed up in the middle of the front row. Santana glared at them, but let Brittany tug her over to sit in the seats behind them. Quietly, Danny apologized to Santana, explaining that she had just assumed that they were already out and proud, asking Brittany out only to rile up Santana for being mean to Rachel. She also apologized to Brittany for asking her out when she was already with Santana.

“Its fine, it got me sweet lady-kisses and S is all mines.” Brittany told her, hugging the Latina beside her.

“Whatever New Girl, just don’t let it happen again.” Santana told her, unable to be truly angry with Brittany hugging her like she was. Not to mention that she'd been able to contain most of the gossip, so it hadn't really spread from the few who had been paying actual attention in the hallway. Danny may have said it out loud, but it hadn't really gotten beyond their group. Her kissing Brittany in the hallway, however, had been what had garnered the attention. Santana had no idea what had made her do such a thing. Just the thought of another girl getting to touch Brittany...it made her see red. Boys she could handle, they didn't actually mean anything. Another girl, however, was clearly a serious threat.

Danny looked at Rachel. “Is ‘New Girl’ going to be my permanent nickname from now on? ‘cause that’s going to get really old, really quickly. Not to mention inaccurate.”

Rachel shrugged. “It’s better than ‘man-hands’, ‘RuPaul’, or ‘Treasure Trail’.” She replied. She could handle nicknames stemming from her height, she was short and she knew it.

“Ray,” Danny sighed. “Don’t listen to them, they’re not worth listening to. Remember, bullies only put other people down to make themselves feel better, to give them a sense of power over those they victimize. If it’ll help, we can always streak during the halftime at the next game. That should prove those nicknames false.”

Rachel gaped at her. “Danielle Charlotte Grant!” She hissed, “I am appalled at your suggestion. Do you have any idea the amount of trouble we would be in for doing such an action? Do you-mph!”

Danny rolled her eyes, raising an eyebrow when Rachel licked her hand. The tiny brunette glared at her and crossed her arms.

“I was _kidding_ ,” she told her friend. “I would never actually let you do something like that. Idiots like those two bozo jock-bitches from earlier would probably take it as an invite.” She removed her hand.

“But _you_ would do it?” Rachel asked still glaring.

“Ray,” Danny smirked, “I _have_ done it, stark naked with war paint during the homecoming game at my old school.”

“ _What_?” Rachel could tell by Danny’s satisfied look that she wasn’t lying.

“The war paint was even in my school’s colors.” Danny nodded. “I’ll show you the video today, my friend recorded it.”

Rachel shook her head. Before she could say anything else, Mr. Schuester walked in. At that, Rachel stood up and told him that Danny wished to audition for the club. Smirking, Danny stood up and walked over to him, informing him that she was ready whenever he was.

Will nodded and gave her the floor. He sat down to watch what the girl had, wondering what she’d either said or done to Rachel Berry to get the girl to introduce her way into the club. After the Sunshine incident, Will had pretty much given up on any people coming to glee club on Rachel’s behest.

Still smirking, Danny winked at Rachel. She handed over the sheet music to Brad before going to stand in the middle of the performing space.

_What’s the time?_

_Well it's gotta be close to midnight_

_My body's talking to me It says, 'Time for danger'_

She strutted, turning and twisting as she flirted with the boys who were undressing her with their eyes and mocking the girls who were staring at her in disbelief. Each boy in reach got a turn, a touch, and a stanza that flirted with them. The ones that weren’t flirty she used to move onto the next boy, actually taking Puck and spinning him around only to throw him back into his seat once.

_Please take me out tonight_

_Don't forsake me - out tonight I'll let you make me - out tonight_

_Tonight - tonight – tonight_

She finished and threw herself into her own chair, sprawling out. Her smirk was still firmly in place as the music faded away. Beside her, Rachel clapped while her own smile was firmly in place. It was either that or giggle at the looks the boys were throwing at her friend, even the few who were trying very hard _not_ to look.

“Your dancing needs work,” she told her friend.

“Eh,” Danny shrugged, “so does your right hook.” She grinned. “So, does this mean I’m in?” This part she said softer so only Rachel heard her.

Mr. Schuester unknowingly answered her question as he welcomed her to the club. Danny fist bumped with Rachel, smiling widely at the smaller girl.

Will started in on his lecture, explaining that week’s glee assignment. Danny tuned him out and instead spent the time watching the other members of the club. It was…interesting to say the least. She ran through the cast list of who was in the room. Rachel had, to a point, kept her updated on New Directions and what went on with the club and school in general. As she’d already figured out, Rachel had not told her everything and some things she had merely skimmed over.

Probably so Danny wouldn’t worry. Not when Danny had friends in her new town, at her new schools, in her new life. Danny had still been bullied to some extent, but not the friendless torment that Rachel appeared to have suffered. Some of that was undoubtedly Rachel’s own fault, but Danny doubted she was responsible for no more then maybe ten percent of what she was teased about.

Danny was not ignorant to her friend’s quirks, faults, and sometimes neurotic tendencies. Unlike the majority of people however, Danny was also very well acquainted with Rachel’s emotions and the way the girl’s mind worked. Rachel was the same way with her, which was why they could tease each other and be firm in the knowledge that it was just friendly teasing. If they wanted to, it would be ridiculously easy for them to hurt each other beyond repair.

Blinking to clear her thoughts, she turned back to observing those around her.

William Schuester was clearly enamored with himself and the pretty Ms. Emma Pillsbury. The man was passionate, she would give him that, but he also needed to re-think his hair and dress style. He also ignored the looks and comments the other members were throwing at Rachel whenever she made a comment or suggestion.

The other girls seemed to hold distain for Rachel while the boys were just annoyed by her. Danny refrained from snorting only to avoid drawing their attention to her. They weren’t earning themselves any gold stars in her book. They had ability, she’d give them that, a few even had talent. It was the fact that they ignored Rachel’s abilities and talents that annoyed her.

Maybe it was just how Danny had become accustomed to doing things, but if you had an expert, you were supposed to use them. Her grandfather, a more-or-less retired Marine, told her that even the most annoying man or woman in an outfit had something to bring to the table even if it seemed useless at times. So did the quiet ones, the loud ones, even the clearly stupid ones. Had that lesson missed these people?

Clearly, as she watched Mr. Schuester tell Rachel to sit down while he assigned the groups to work together at random, it had. Random? Danny understood the point of team building, of trusting your teammates or sparring partner, of learning to work (or in this case, harmonize) together. Doing it randomly, without regard to personal dynamics, was risky.

Danny was very glad when she, Rachel, and Puck were assigned to the same group along with Lauren, who was absent that day. Santana and Brittany found themselves in a group with Mike, Finn and Tina. Artie, Quinn, Sam, and Mercedes were grouped together. Will dismissed them after that, eager for them to get started.

“So, where do we want to meet up?” Puck asked, leering at Danny.

“Look,” Danny turned to face him, “to be fair, I’m gayer then a bag of skittles. So, unless you wanna go get a sex change, you’re not going to get anywhere with me.”

Puck stared at her. Rachel looked between them and was trying to control her giggles. Puck looked horrified, interested, and disbelieving all at once. Danny’s face was serious, but she was fighting a grin as the boy didn’t say anything.

“I think you broke him,” Rachel finally said, breaking the silence that had met Danny’s announcement.

“Broke who?” Lauren marched up, wrestling bag slung over her shoulder. “Puckerman! Close your mouth.”

“But…but…” he shook his head. “Girl, that’s just not nice. Besides,” he glanced at Lauren, “I’m not that guy anymore.”

Danny grinned, holding her hand out to Laruen. “I’m Danny Grant, you missed my audition for glee club today. I mercilessly teased the boys with said audition, which was mean because boys don’t interest me.”

Laruen shook the offered hand. “Good, wouldn’t want to have to break you.” She squeezed Danny’s hand. Danny squeezed back, not intimidated in the least.

“I think you’d find I’m a little too hard to chew on,” Danny replied. “Now, I’m starving, who wants food?”

That, if anything, won Lauren over on top of the fact Danny wasn’t scared of her or intimidated by her in the least. If the handshake and her replies already were anything to go by, she could give as good as she got.

“I’m in,” she replied, figuring this would be a good as chance as any to gather more information on the new girl.

Splitting up, Danny followed Puck’s truck to Breadsticks. She listened to Rachel as the girl explained their assignment. They were supposed to come up with an anthem they could all agree on and sing together. What they didn’t know was Danny and Rachel’s own plan to go ahead and write at least one original song for Regionals in order to convince them that they could come up with something to blow away the competition.

The only thing they really got done at Breadsticks was eating dinner. None of them could name a single song that they could agree on. Rachel had plenty of suggestions, but Puck was adamantly against doing anything that sounded remotely like a show tune. Lauren was the same, Danny was mostly neutral.

“Look, why don’t we go home and bring back three songs tomorrow?” Danny finally intervened before Lauren could insult Rachel, the larger girl’s tolerance reaching its peak.

“What would that prove?” Lauren demanded.

“One,” Danny told her, matching her stare, “it would prove that we know each other enough to find common ground on which to work together. Two, that we know ourselves enough to be comfortable in our own skin as well as who we are within a certain group. Third, that we’re observant enough of the group as a whole to find something suitable and agreeable with everyone.”

Puck was trying to be inconspicuous in his gazing at Lauren. “I think I can do that.”

“So long as we each promise to keep our individual song choices clean,” Rachel glared at Puck, “then I see no reason to protest such a plan.”

“Wow Berry, forget your thesaurus at home this morning?” Puck asked, amused.

“Watch it,” Danny told the boy, “or we’ll manage to choose a song that will have you in drag when we perform it.”

“Now that would be a sight to have to miss,” someone spoke from behind them.

Rachel turned around, smiling as she got up to hug the boy who had spoken. “Kurt! I didn’t know you were in town! Hi Blaine.” She smiled at the shorter, darker haired boy standing beside her kind-of-friend.

Kurt smiled, returning her hug. “Who’s the new girl?” He asked her softly.

“Danny Grant,” Rachel replied. “She just moved back to the area and is the newest member of New Directions. We were just talking about Mr. Schue’s newest assignment.”

“Hi,” Danny held out her hand to each boy while Rachel reintroduced them. “So you’re the one who did the sad-clown-hooker makeover?” Danny eyed the boy up and down.

Kurt blanched. How did the girl know about that and why did she look as if she were about to throw him into a pool full of slushy?

“Danny,” Rachel said warningly. “We’ve already worked past that, I forgave him for it. You are _not_ allowed to seek vengeance for something that happened over a year ago.”

“Fine, ruin my fun.” She turned and picked her bag up. “I’m going to go pay, you catch up with your friends.” She walked away.

“I have a feeling she doesn’t like us.” Blaine spoke, watching the girl walk away and wondering what her problem was.

“Danny is very overprotective of me, she always has been. Even when she lived in Indianapolis instead of Lima or Carmel, she was like that.” Rachel explained, reminding Kurt that Rachel herself had transferred sometime during sixth grade to the Lima school district.

“I can tell,” Kurt replied, watching as the girl came back towards them. “Should I be afraid?”

“Only if you do anything mean to Ray ever again,” Danny answered the question. “I’m already planning revenge on some boneheads, including this one really creepy guy who kept trying to follow us around with a video camera.”

Rachel sighed. “Danny, revenge is never the answer. Now, we have homework to complete. Bye Kurt, bye Blaine,” she hugged both boys goodbye, waving at Puck and Laruen who barely acknowledged their exit.

Kurt raised an eyebrow when he heard ‘it is when I go Marine drill sergeant on them’ from the taller girl. He then turned to his hopefully soon-to-be boyfriend.

“Was it just me, or did Rachel have a pink braid?” Kurt asked as he took the seat recently vacated by the tiny diva.

“It wasn’t just you,” Puck replied, sullen at having his flirting interrupted. “She showed up at school today with it, in that outfit, and she and the new girl have been constantly together.”

“Something we should know about Ms. Berry?” Kurt asked, curious. He’d never thought of Rachel Berry as being gay. Not when she chased Finn like a lost puppy most of the time, plus Jesse and Puck had both dated her.

“Not sure about Berry,” Laruen spoke up, taking Puck’s dessert. “But Grant freely admitted she was gay after attempting to break Puckerman’s brains over here.”

“Do tell,” Kurt leaned forward.

Puck groaned. Why, why was he being dragged into this shit? Still, Lauren seemed interested…he might as well play along and try to earn some brownie points.

“Grant did this song _Out Tonight_ from _RENT_ ,” he grimaced, “complete come on and turn on to every male in the room, but she then announces that she’s ‘gayer than a bag of skittles’.”

“Right before telling Puckerman that she’d be interested if he got a sex change.” Lauren added in, grinning as her wannabe boyfriend sunk lower in his chair.

“Thanks Zizes,” he mumbled. “You didn’t see her audition, girl was trying to give ‘sex on legs’ a new definition.” It was embarrassing. “She outed Santana in the hallway this morning.”

“She’s still alive?” Kurt asked, eyes wide.

“She hit on Brittany,” Puck continued. “Then, in front of glee club, she turns around and apologizes because she thought they were already out.”

Kurt sat back, musing over what Puck had just told him. “Brittany must be ecstatic, that’s the only reason I can come up with that Danny is still alive.”

 


	5. Chapter 5

Silver and Gold

Chapter 5

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

Danny watched from Rachel’s bed as the girl recorded her song. She waited until Rachel had stopped the camera, loaded it onto her computer, and had it up to edit before she said anything.

“Exactly how often do you do this?” She was curled up, completed homework beside her with her lap-desk occupied by her drawing pencils as she remade the binder cover for the small brunette.

“Every night,” Rachel told her, “although recently I have been neglecting doing so.”

“And you post them on MySpace?” Danny cocked her eyebrow.

“What is wrong with MySpace?” Rachel asked, attention completely on her friend verses her video.

“You’re speaking to the girl that belongs to the percentile that _doesn’t_ have a MySpace and rarely checks her Facebook page.” Danny reminded her. “Why not load them onto YouTube?”

“They get ridiculed enough as is on MySpace,” Rachel informed her. For a girl as into technology as Danny was, she wasn’t overly fond of social networking sites.

Danny frowned, tapping the end of her pencil against her mouth in thought. Then she began to smile again as an idea occurred to her.

“What if we made then into actual music videos?” She suggested. “In fact, we can redirect people from your MySpace to your YouTube.”

“I don’t see how we would have time to ensure my schedule of posting a video on a nightly basis.” Rachel told her.

“Rearrange your schedule to make it a weekly thing,” Danny supplied, holding up her hand before Rachel could protest. “Think of it this way, you have an entire seven days per song and video. We can either show you or do a story type one for each song.” She set her lap desk aside. “Rachel, it’ll show that you’re capable of more than just standing in the corner and belting out a rendition of a song at a drop of a hat. It’ll show that you have more creativity than that, and it’ll keep you from re-using songs over and over again.”

She’d been on Rachel’s computer earlier. Every video got posted, including multiples of her favorite songs. Danny knew it was so Rachel could visually see and hear her improvement, but she also knew that Rachel didn’t need it.

“Rae, think of it as practice for when your stage performance gets recorded. There might be another show or there might not be, but each performance is different anyway because theater is a single moment in time.”

Rachel knew that. She sat quietly as Danny explained her reasoning behind her idea. Part of her resented Danny’s intrusion, because Danny wasn’t a performer. At least, she wasn’t a performer like Rachel. The greater part of her was toying with the idea. Danny was right, she knew, about each performance being different in some way. There was no guarantee that everything would go smoothly for each performance or that she wouldn’t have an off-night where she wasn’t at her best.

The show had to go on, no matter what. Rachel knew if she couldn’t do her job, then there was always someone else to take her place. Mr. Schuester had proven that last year and Finn continued to prove it as well. She wanted attention, it was why she did the videos in the first place, but so far it wasn’t the attention she desired.

“I’ll do it.” She told Danny. “You’ll help, right?”

Danny was smiling eagerly. “Of course I will.” Then she smirked. “We can even use it as ammunition against Sylvester.”

“How?” Rachel asked, eager for any way that would get her out of wearing the coveted Cheerios uniform.

“We film cheer practices, our own with our own minions,” Danny was already thinking of ways to convince her sister and the girls that would undoubtedly be following her around, “using routines we choreographed. Her cheer boot camp over the summer has younger girls as well, right?”

“Yes, Ms. Sylvester likes to begin searching out possible cheer talent as young as she possible can.” Rachel told her.

“Alright then, we have the beginnings of a truly epic plan.” She smiled widely. “Now, let’s get to work.”

* * *

Danny stormed into Glee rehearsal a week after she and Rachel had come up with their music video plan. In that time, the rest of the group had agreed to go along with Rachel’s idea of original songs. _After_ , of course, Quinn and Finn had sided with the plan.

Right now, however, that didn’t matter. What did matter was that Danny was beyond furious at the moment. All of it was aimed at the haughty blonde girl sitting beside the oversized man-child. She marched right up to the girl and yanked her to her feet.

“What did you do to Rachel?” She half yelled, half hissed. Danny was nearly as tall as Finn, she had lifted Quinn so that they were face to face. “Tell me, now!”

“Hey,” Finn stood up, “let her go!” He reached for Danny so that she’d have to let go of Quinn.

“Shut it man-child!” Danny snapped. “Sit down,” she shoved him with her free hand and knocked him off his feet to land sprawled in his chair. “I’m waiting Blondie!”

Quinn sneered. “I only told her what she needed to hear.” She replied. Nobody knew, _nobody could know_ , the actual reasons why she’d said what she had to Rachel the day before. Meeting Danny’s eyes now, however, she felt her stomach drop. Somehow, she knew Danny knew.

Danny dropped her. Only Quinn’s years as a cheerleader enabled her to land on her feet. Danny stepped back.

“You all sicken me. You two especially,” she snarled at Finn and Quinn. “Come near Rachel again and I’ll make the baby-fiasco last year look like a trip to the circus.” She turned and stormed to the door where she stopped. “You all should be ashamed of yourselves, because Rachel will come back. Because for some fucking reason she sees all of you as her friends.” She snorted and shook her head. “None of you deserve that privilege.” Danny turned and leveled her sharpest glare at them. “None of you know Rachel beyond her Marilynn Monroe, and none of you care to try harder to find out who she is.” She smirked. “Frankly, you all might be stars in your right, but you suck as human beings.” She spun around and completed her storm out.

None of them knew Rachel as she did. Even with seven years apart, she still topped them on the subject of their star talent. Not a single one of them gave the girl a chance.

“What the fuck was that about?” Puck asked, getting up. He wasn’t sure if he should check on Quinn or go after Danny. He and Laruen had both begun hanging out with the two girls, especially when their group rendition of _Stand_ had gone over so well.

“Nothing,” Quinn replied. “Berry is only over reacting as usual.”

“Over reacting to _what_?” Tina asked, mildly shaken at seeing someone so angry. She clutched Mike’s hand.

“Nothing,” Quinn replied.

“Yea right Q,” Santana stood up. She had her own issues with Danny, but they paled when it came to the blonde beside her. She couldn’t stay angry at something that not only got her Brittany’s unwavering attention but made the both of them (especially Brittany) happy.

“You made Rachel cry, didn’t you?” Brittany asked pointedly. She could read those around her far better than they thought she could. Danny might not be in love with her best friend, but she still reacted exactly like Santana did when Brittany was upset about something. So that meant something had happened to Rachel and something had made Danny believe it led directly back to Quinn.

“You suddenly care about RuPaul now?” Quinn asked, shooting a glare at her two oldest friends.

Before any of them could reply, Will came in and got them started. He briefly asked where the missing two girls were, but didn’t question it when Tina told him they weren’t feeling well.

Brittany sat quietly. She knew she had to fix this. She gripped Santana’s hand tightly. She didn’t have a choice. Even with all of them and all of their talent, Brittany knew they couldn’t win without Rachel. Just like the Cheerios had lost without them.

 


	6. Chapter 6

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Silver and Gold

Chapter 6

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

True enough, just as Danny had told them, Rachel came back to Glee two days later. Danny hovering behind her, glaring at anyone who she even thought was looking at Rachel funny. It had been like that ever since Danny had confronted Quinn. None of the gleeks could get within a foot of Rachel.

“I have a solo for Regionals,” Rachel announced.

Will opened his mouth to tell her that she had to show it to them all, just like everyone else did, but shut it when Danny glared at him. It wasn’t often Will saw something that made him take a step back and reevaluate things, but Danny’s glacial glare was one of those things.

“Would you like to share it with us Rachel?” He asked instead, nervous smile making its way onto his face. He glanced around. Finn was sinking into his chair, the other boys looked as if they getting ready to tune Rachel out, the girls were a mix between mild disinterest and annoyance. All but Puck and, surprisingly, Lauren. Puck had sat up, locking eyes with Rachel as if he were checking to see if she was, indeed, alright. Lauren kicked the back of Finn’s chair, making the boy sit up.

“If that is alright with everyone, I would Mr. Schuester.” Rachel replied. She went to stand in the middle of stage area at the front of the room.

Danny walked over and quietly asked Brad if she could accompany Rachel on the piano. The rest of the band had already been set to the music and they knew when to come in. Danny had made certain of it the day before. The only one she hadn’t been able to locate had been Brad, thus why she was asking him now.

Brad nodded, getting up to watch from the sidelines.

Danny began with a nod from Rachel. The brunette gave a small sigh and began. Everyone was silent as they listened. Slowly, they all sat up and paid attention. When it came time for backup vocals, Danny began singing as well. She was much softer than she normally was, attention riveted to the piano keys and sheet music before her. They stopped singing, both letting the music fade away in a haunting melody speaking of loss and being adrift.

It was not something the gleeks were accustomed to seeing in their star. Puck was the first to break the silence, applauding her and Danny both. Tina, Mike, and Artie followed, Mercedes not far behind them.

“Looks like we have our solo for Regionals,” Will spoke.

* * *

Regionals arrived and the dynamic had hardly improved. Will didn’t know what had happened, but Danny was icy towards everyone but Rachel. Only Puck, Brittany, Santana, and Lauren seemed immune, and that by sheer will alone. Rachel had been quiet, which was highly unusual for the girl. He didn’t know what to do and he didn’t want to cause problems for Emma by dragging her into it.

“Excuse me,” Will jumped at the commanding voice that had spoken behind him.

He turned, coming face to face with an older man dressed impeccably in jeans and a Marine t-shirt. He was looking at Will as if he disapproved at the disorder of Will’s clothing. Will had a feeling that if this man gave an order, he expected it to be followed with no questions asked. Or, if you did have the audacity to ask a question, it had better be a _very_ good one.

“Can I help you with something sir?” Will didn’t know where the ‘sir’ had come from, but he felt it was necessary when speaking to the imposing figure before him.

“You are William Schuester, correct?” He asked, standing straight and making Will feel as he should be standing at attention.

“Yes,” Will replied, beginning to feel as if he should be looking for an escape route.

“Then I believe you can assist me. I am looking for my granddaughter Danny and her friend Rachel.”

Will nodded. “They should be getting ready right now Sir,” Will replied, not knowing what else he could say. The family members usually took seats in the audience, coming backstage only after the competition was over.

“What are you waiting for?” The man demanded to know, “I am not waiting for an engraved invitation young man!”

Will gulped and nodded, “this way.” He led him to the green room they had been assigned. The boys were gathered around outside of it, waiting for the girls to re-admit them. He knocked on the door.

“Puck, for the last time,” Danny yanked over the door, snarl on her face as she prepared to tell Puck off again for trying to sneak a peek at them. She stopped, blinking at the man behind her teacher.

Immediately, she straightened and saluted him. “Colonel, I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

The man smiled. “Is that how you greet your grandfather my dear?” he asked.

“No sir,” Danny smiled impishly. “However, I am on guard duty so my usual greeting would involve deserting my post.”

“I see,” he turned to gaze at the boys. “Well, stand up straight!” He barked. Every last one of them, Will included did so. Even Artie straightened as much as he could. “Go neaten yourselves up! Disgraceful, the lot of you! You aren’t fit to perform for a kindergarten class, much less a show choir competition!” He leveled _the look_ on them. “Off with you, report back once you’re presentable!”

The boys scrambled, Will motioning them back to the nearest bathroom. He didn’t think they looked too shabby, but he wasn’t going to argue with the man who had just beat out both Sue and his ex-wife for the top spot on the list of people who could honestly scare him.

Danny refrained from giggling, but her smile said it all for her. She stepped out of the doorway, closing the door behind her. Then she hugged her grandfather tightly.

“When did you get here?” She stepped back. “I thought you weren’t going to be here until next week!”

“I took an earlier flight,” he told her. “Now, let me look at you.”

Danny spun around, showing off her outfit for their performance. She loved the combat boots, which she had shined to a gleaming brightness. She’d help Rachel get hers the same way. “Do I pass inspection Sir?”

“As always, although that blue streak in your hair is not regulation.” He replied. Josiah Grant had been in the military since he had graduated from high school. For him, that was nearly fifty years in the service. He’d raised both his children on military bases around the world and wore a rainbow ribbon proudly next to his military support ribbon on his hat in honor of both his younger son and eldest granddaughter.

“Dad gave me his full permission Grandpa, I promise.” Danny told him. She hugged him again. “Are you going to stay for the show?”

“Of course I am,” he replied. “It isn’t often that I get to see you on stage.”

Danny grinned wryly. “No, it isn’t. Do you want to meet the rest of the girls?”

“I would, especially Ms. Berry.” He replied, remembering the tiny brunette fondly.

“Alright,” Danny nodded.

She stuck her head in and asked if all was clear. The rooms were soundproofed so none of them had heard what had gone on outside. When Rachel gave her the ‘all clear’, she led her grandfather inside.

“Ladies,” she sidestepped Rachel as her friend squealed and hugged Josiah, “this is my grandfather, Colonel Josiah Grant of the US Marine Corp. He sent the boys off to neaten up.”

“Including Puck?” Santana asked, eyeing the man carefully. She spotted the ribbon and relaxed a little.

“Which one was he?” Josiah asked, leveling his own look at the Latina.

“The one closest to the door,” Danny replied. “He has a habit of not knocking, much less waiting for the ‘all clear’.”

“I see…” Josiah nodded.

“Noah has always been that way,” Rachel informed him. “Although, he has changed for the better in recent months.”

Josiah smiled. “If you believe that, then I shall give the boy the benefit of the doubt.”

Rachel beamed and Danny swung her about. “Warm up Starlight! I’ll get people seated, yeah?” She shot a quick glare at the other girls before leading her grandfather away.

Brittany took that as her opening. She bounded over to Rachel and hugged the girl tightly. “I’m sorry if I ever made you sad.” She shoved a crumpled piece of paper into Rachel’s hands. “I think this is what Danny meant, am I right?”

After Danny had stormed out of the choir room, Brittany had gone home and Googled© Marilynn Monroe. Her mom had discovered her doing so and helped her find the quote she had just handed Rachel.

Rachel opened the paper and read what was printed on it, grinning a little at the duck and kitten stickers placed on it at random points. It read: _I’m selfish, impatient, and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can’t handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don’t deserve me at my best._

Smiling up at the tall blonde, Rachel nodded. “Yes Brittany, you _are_ right. Thank you, and you’ve never actually done anything to make me sad, but thank you for apologizing anyway.”

Before anyone could say anything else, the boys piled into the room followed by Danny and Mr. Schuester. Rachel placed the paper into her bag, smiling at Danny as the girl let herself be led into vocal warm-ups.

When it came time to perform, Rachel walked out onto the stage. She was a little bit nervous, a rare feeling for her once she was actually onstage. She glanced to stage left where Mr. Schuester and Danny were standing. Danny smiled, giving her a nod. Rachel turned to the mike and music began.

_What have I done_

_Wish I could run_

_Away from this ship going under_

_Just trying to help_

_Hurt everyone else_

_Now I feel the weight of the world_

_Is on my shoulders_

Danny looked out into the audience as Rachel sank deeper into her song. They were enraptured, captivated by the sheer power of her friend’s emotional outpouring. They probably didn’t think that Rachel really felt this way, but they knew they did sometimes and Danny knew that was the part being reached. It was why they would win this.

Then she turned her eyes to look at those around her, waiting to go on. Brittany was beside her, watching Rachel carefully. Finn was watching her as if she held the answer to everything he wanted. Danny restrained herself from slapping him only because they needed him for the next number. Turning her eyes to where Quinn and Santana were standing, she saw the look in the blonde’s eyes.

 _I was right_ …Danny thought to herself. _Rachel doesn’t know, and I don’t think Quinn does either._ She turned back to where Rachel had been joined onstage by Brittany and Mercedes.

Slowly the rest of them joined the three girls on stage. Danny’s grin was smug as Rachel gave them a breathless introduction amid the wild applause that had greeted the end of her solo. Then she didn’t have time to smile as they were spinning around.

_Yeah, you may think that I'm a zero_

_But, hey, everyone you wanna be_

_Probably started off like me_

Danny grabbed Rachel’s hand and spun her to Artie, blocking Finn from doing so. He had to spin Quinn instead, which is how Mr. Schuester had choreographed them to begin with. When they lined up to throw their confetti slushies at the audience, Danny made certain that she placed herself between Finn and Rachel with Artie on Rachel’s other side.

Backstage, Danny swooped Rachel up and spun her around. “That showed them starlight! They were absolutely spellbound!”

Rachel’s own smile took up half her face. “We did it! Regionals is _ours_ this year!”

When she was put back down, Brittany, Mercedes, and Tina were hugging her. The latter two took this chance to apologize. That only made Rachel smile brighter, so Danny let it slide for now. They weren’t entirely bad, Danny knew that, they were just immature teenagers.

Rachel wasn’t taking all the praise, re-saying what she’d already said about _Loser Like Me_. The rest of Glee had written an amazing song that was going to help them win just as much as _Get it Right_.

The judges didn’t take long to decide. The only pause point in the celebrations of New Directions at their win was when Sue stormed over and punched out the announcer. After that, however, there was nothing to stop them.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Silver and Gold

Chapter 7

I OWN NOTHING!

* * *

Except, apparently, Mr. Schuester.

The entire club, not just Rachel and Danny, stared at him as he introduced their ‘Nationals Advisor’. Rachel was furious. She was right here! New Directions had _her_ , why did they need Jesse St. James, of all people, to lead them to Nationals? They’d _never_ needed outside help to win a competition. Was Mr. Schuester that uncertain of their ability?

They’d just won Regionals with original songs. They always did their best and it had proved over and over again that by being themselves and doing what they did best won them the day. At least in their own books. They should have won the year before, they all knew that. Hell, even Coach Sylvester had known that!

“Mr. Schue,” Rachel stood up, “I really think this is unnecessary.” Had the man forgotten that Jesse had led the egging incident on her just the year before? Not to mention everything else Vocal Adrenaline had done to them.

“I would have thought you of all people would think this is exactly the kind of help you needed,” Jesse replied, smirk firmly on his face.

Danny stood up, placing her hand on Rachel’s shoulder. “This is the idiot who egged you last year, right?” This was said quietly. Rachel nodded. “Okay then.”

She hauled off and punched Jesse in the eye.

“Danny!” Rachel exclaimed, shocked. She certainly had never thought her friend would do something like that, not in front of a teacher at least.

“I didn’t like his face,” Danny replied, grim smile on her face. “I think the bruise suites him. Be better if there was some _egg_ on his face to go with it, don’t you think?” She glowered at the older boy still on the floor where her punch had landed him.

She stepped over him. “I’ll be at home looking up songs we can do for Nationals. Tell me when the over-seasoned hen leaves.” She walked out.

Puck and Lauren snickered. Rachel turned and gathered up hers and Danny’s things. She didn’t look at anyone.

“I will be joining Danny.” She informed them. “Discuss among yourselves what you wish to do, but I cannot condone this. We have never needed outside help before and we certainly do not require it now.”

She walked out calmly. New Directions would go to Nationals on their own skills and strengths or they could go without her. She was not going to let somebody with a larger ego then her ruin everything she and the others had worked for. As Co-Captain, she had to show them that she thought they could do it themselves. They could do it, Rachel knew they could.

Maybe if it hadn’t been Jesse…Rachel shook her head. No. No matter who Will had brought in, she still would have protested.

Now, should they do original songs or something equally mind-blowing to show the judges at Nationals that little nowhere high schools had just as much talent as the bigger schools with actual art programs? A tough decision…maybe one of each?

* * *

Sue smiled with triumph as Becky related what had happened during Glee rehearsal. William Schuester was doing it all for her. If he didn’t watch out, he’d destroy the glee club all on his own without her meddling.

Well, maybe a little of her meddling. Now…what would cause the most trouble among the members?

“Becky, what social disaster is nearest at hand?” She asked, glancing at the calendar that hung on her wall.

“Prom Coach,” Becky replied, loyal as ever. “Quinn and Santana are both running for Prom Queen.”

Sue smiled. “Becky, you’ve just given me an excellent idea…”

Becky beamed.

 


	8. Chapter 8

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Silver and Gold

Chapter 8

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

Rachel and Danny stared in growing horror at the poster in front of them.

“Is this a plan for revenge that I was not aware of?” Rachel squeaked out.

They were two of the very few students in the school at the moment. There was a very good chance that no one else had seen these other than the person who had put them up.

“Not unless you did it and not only forgot to tell me, but forgot it yourself.” Danny whispered. “This is worse than…that devil-woman!” Danny reached out and tore the poster down. “We have to find and get rid of these before her antics get us killed.”

Rachel almost asked who, mind still stuck on seeing her face on a poster announcing that she was running for Prom Queen. Then she shook herself. There was only one person Danny would call ‘devil-woman’. She nodded.

“You take the north and west wings, I’ll take east and south.” Rachel replied, heading off.

Danny didn’t hesitate. She hated rushing, but she practically flew through the halls to every posting board and free wall space where Rachel’s picture was. Not just Rachel’s either, but Danny’s name was printed on it as the shorter girl’s campaign manager.

“I think that’s all of them,” she informed Rachel when they met behind the school near the largest dumpster. “I checked with Ms. Pillsbury,” the guidance councilor was in charge of keeping track of who was running for prom royalty, “our names are off the list.”

Rachel nodded, distracted as she tried to think of any places they might have missed in their whirlwind search. “What if Santana and Quinn already know?”

Danny frowned. Rachel was the kind of person who hated physical violence. She could, would, and did do things that released her more evil side every now and then (she apologized for most of them), but she had to be in a very special sort of place indeed to hurt someone she cared about. Danny knew all this. It was why, when they were little, Danny had decided then that she would be Rachel’s protector. Rachel was the kind of person who loved well, if not wisely.

“Damage control,” she finally said, throwing the last of the paper bits into the dumpster. They had torn each poster into pieces. “You get Brittany to help you capture Santana. I’ll get Blondie away from the lumbering string-bean.”

Rachel sighed and nodded, not bothering to correct Danny on not using proper names. She knew how Brittany had earned being called by her given name (although _Dancer_ was hardly insultive), but had no idea how Santana had lost the nickname _Demon-girl_. Not that Danny had tried overly hard to come up with insulting nicknames for the others in Glee Club, other than Finn, Quinn, and sometimes Mr. Schuester.

She found Brittany waiting by Santana’s locker. Quickly, she filled the blonde in, using the simplest language Rachel knew how to use without insulting the intelligence _she_ _knew_ the tall blonde had. Brittany nodded, agreeing to help Rachel get Santana somewhere that she could explain any of the remaining posters.

Luck was on their side as getting Santana into the nearest unused closet wasn’t difficult. Nor had the other brunette seen any of the posters or heard anything about Rachel supposedly running for Prom Queen. She was actually mildly amused by the idea. She was currently laughing.

“Why are you laughing?” Rachel half-shrieked. “That demonic entity that calls herself the cheerleading coach is trying to get me killed!” Part of her knew she might be over-reacting just a little bit, but the rest of her felt that this was indeed something she could justify freaking out about. “It’s bad enough she’s sentenced myself and Danny to purgatory next year, she wants to see if we can escape death now!”

“Whoa, okay midget, calm down,” Santana righted herself and took in the disheveled appearance of the glee co-captain. Rachel Berry was never disheveled and she actually looked scared.

If it was one thing Santana Lopez knew about Rachel Berry, it was that the girl was not someone who was easy to scare, much less terrify, into submission. The shorter brunette could act as if she was scared, terrified even, but that didn’t mean she actually was. As far as Santana could tell, she was actually scared.

“What do you mean Rachel?” Brittany asked, taking in her small friend’s appearance. She pressed a calming hand on her girlfriend’s arm.

Rachel gulped down breaths of air. Well…she might as well get it over with. They would find out sooner or later.

“Coach Sylvester,” she breathed again, knowing she needed to keep this as simple as possible, “saw Danny and I sparring.” Brittany gave her a blank look. “You know the martial arts, ninja stuff, like what she did to Azimio and Karofsky when they tried to slushy me last week.” Brittany’s face brightened and she nodded her understanding. “She ordered us to join the Cheerios, and neither of us has managed to come up with a way to get out of it before there is a revolt.”

Santana stared at her. She’d seen Danny face Sue Sylvester and not blink, telling the woman point blank what she thought of the woman’s politics and bullying policy. She also knew that Sue Sylvester was the kind of woman who saw something she wanted and did everything she could think of to get it. Not that she always did, but that never appeared to stop her unless something distracted her from it.

 _Holy fuckin’ shit_ , Santana thought to herself. Quickly, her mind compared what she knew about both the demonic blonde she obeyed (more or less) while on the Cheerios and the brunette in front of her. The two were scarily similar, except that Rachel was nowhere near as demonic (or as tall) as Coach Sylvester. The Latina had a sudden image of Rachel in the future, tyrannically teaching the next group of New Directions (or some glee club somewhere) how to obtain not only National status, but continual National status with little care to their well being and safety. Somehow, that scared her.

Rachel was like Brittany in a way, caring but usually oblivious to the goings on around her. Only, until Danny had reappeared on the scene, she hadn’t had someone watching out for her, keeping the bullies away and letting her shine at what she did the best. It was when Santana had realized that, and come to realize exactly how Danny viewed herself, that the two of them had reached an understanding of sorts. It was how Santana had _earned_ (and she didn’t argue that thought, because she knew it was true no matter how much she might not like it) being addressed by her actual name instead of whatever name Danny decided to call her at the time.

Frankly, Santana would rather witness the future Rachel as someone like Brittany than release another Sue Sylvester onto the world.

“That’s great Rachel!” Brittany was hugging the other girl. “Now no one will slushy you again!”

“But Quinn will kill me,” Rachel told her. “Besides, you three are the only Cheerios who bother at least tolerating me long enough for glee club. The others will be finding ways of getting rid of me and implementing them before the first day of school is over next year!”

“Quinn won’t kill you short-stack,” Santana told her. “And the rest of the Cheerios know not to mess with Coach’s pets.”

“Thank you Santana, but I would rather not have to deal with the politics that being a cheerleader requires.” Rachel replied. “I also doubt even wearing the uniform will detour the idiotic jock-bitches and other bullies from flinging slushies on my person.”

Brittany blinked, processing what Rachel had just said. She was pretty certain she understood most of it. She was also amused at hearing Rachel, the person who was _always_ calling others on their ‘coarse language’, swearing so easily.

Danny slid into the room before they could continue the discussion. “I couldn’t find Quinn, but I think we got rid of all the posters. We might be safe.” There was a screeching sound outside. They all winched. “Then again, I could be wrong.”

Rachel swallowed. “We have to face her and explain that this is nothing more than a misunderstanding, that Coach Sylvester was behind the entire thing.”

“That you don’t want Finept back?” Santana sneered. That was going to be one of the first things Quinn thought of while she searched the school for Rachel.

“I don’t want Finn back,” Rachel told her, sighing. “We weren’t good for each other, and I have no desire to lower my intelligence level in order to do so again.”

“Yea, and that way we don’t have another Sunshine incident,” Danny muttered. “Pirates, Ninjas, or Calvary?”

“Pirates,” Rachel, who had been the only one to understand the question, answered. “There are too many people for Ninjas and we don’t have enough people for Calvary.”

“What the hell are you two babbling about Berry?” Santana demanded, confused and not liking it in the least.

“You’ll see Santana,” Rachel replied. “Danny, should I distract Finn?”

“No,” Danny shook her head. “If we’re going with Pirates, then I want to do the physical aspects.”

“This we have to see.” Santana muttered. “Later.” She pulled Brittany out of the closet behind her.

* * *

Quinn found her, Finn trailing along behind the irate blonde.

“Santana, did you see this?” Quinn, livid, thrust the poster into Santana’s face.

“No, and maybe I could if you took it out my face.” She smacked Quinn’s hand out of her face. It wasn’t a bad poster, but it was pretty obvious that Rachel Berry had nothing to do with its creation.

For one, Rachel was not one to promote her ‘loser’ status. Nor was she one to appeal to the masses. The dead give-away, however, was the fact that there weren’t any gold stars on it. Anywhere, not even after her name. _Everyone_ knew Rachel Berry put a gold star after her signature.

Before Santana could point this out and find some way to make it insulting, there was a loud yell behind them. Quinn never knew what hit her as she was swept up sideways and tossed over a shoulder. Finn grunted as he was elbowed in the chest and thrust off balance. He fell to the floor as Quinn was carried away.

Quinn shrieked, dropping what she was still holding in an attempt to escape whoever was kidnapping her. Her kidnapper was shouting ‘yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum’ and ‘outta the way landlubbers’ while she hightailed it down the hallway. The surrounding masses just stared at the sight.

* * *

“Really Danny, was the yelling necessary?” Rachel asked as she closed the door to the new closet behind the girl.

“Yes,” Danny replied as she dropped Quinn into a chair. “It gave a certain flare to the plan. Pity I didn’t have a sword, now that would have just been epic.”

The blonde was stunned and didn’t move. What the hell had just happened? Why hadn’t anyone made a move to stop these two clearly insane girls from taking her? She moved just enough to meet Danny’s eyes.

That was when she remembered that _Danny knew_. How she knew, Quinn didn’t know. No one else knew. Well, maybe Brittany, but she had her hands full enough as it was with Santana that Quinn could never be sure just how much the taller blonde did or didn’t know. Danny however, was different. Danny knowing was dangerous. Danny had every reason in the world to want to hurt Quinn because she had hurt Rachel.

Danny was like Santana in that respect. No one hurt the girl closest to their hearts, no matter the actuality of the relationship. Quinn had, both knowingly and unknowingly, broken that unspoken rule. So, Quinn was afraid of Danny.

Not because the girl could pick her up one handed. Not because Danny could physically harm her, kill her, and hide her body where it would never be found. No, it was because what Danny knew could and would ruin everything Quinn had worked for in her life. At least, what she had worked to make her life look like.

The worse part of it was that she knew, somewhere inside her, that Danny would forgive her eventually. The other girl would give her a chance, one chance, to gain Rachel’s forgiveness. To gain Rachel’s affections and earn the small girl’s trust, if Quinn was brave enough to face what she was hiding from everyone. Not just everyone, but herself as well when she could manage it.

“Are you alright Quinn?” Rachel’s voice broke the staring contest going on between the two other girls in the room. “Danny’s manhandling didn’t hurt you, did it?”

“Why’d you have your goon kidnap me RuPaul?” Quinn snarled. This is what she always did, she knew. “Your plan to try and take Prom Queen from me wasn’t enough?”

Danny sighed, tempted to slap the blonde. Instead, she leaned against the door. Rachel could handle this. If she needed help, then she would jump in.

“Danny merely brought you to a secluded area where we could discuss this rationally. Danny is no more my ‘goon’ than Santana is your ‘minion’.” Rachel replied evenly. “The posters were not any of my doing, I promise you.”

Calmly, with Danny’s knowing glare keeping the blonde quietly fuming, Rachel explained. More than explained, she also told Quinn about Sylvester drafting them for the Cheerios and their plans on how to get out of it because they didn’t want those positions. Once she was finished, Rachel asked Quinn again if she was alright.

“I’m fine Berry.” Quinn replied evenly.

“Great, Rachel,” Danny spoke before Rachel could, “you should probably head to class now. I need to have a discussion with Blondie here before we do the same.”

“Danny…” Rachel knew Danny knew how she felt about Quinn. She also knew how obsessively protective Danny was of her. Rachel thought that sometimes it might just be easier for the both of them if they loved each other as lovers instead of best friends and sisters.

That was never going to happen, Rachel knew, because they were best friends and each loved the other as a sibling. Besides, Rachel needed Danny in that capacity just as Danny needed her. She wouldn’t change that for the world.

“Please Rachel, I promise that she won’t come to any harm.” Danny met Rachel’s eyes with her own. “I swear, on my honor, that I am just going to talk with her. Nothing else.”

Rachel nodded. “Don’t be late to class, and don’t make Quinn late either.” She turned and walked out.

Only once Danny was certain Rachel was gone did she turn to once again face the blonde. Quinn had yet to move from the chair.

“I’m only going to say this once,” Danny began. “Or rather, I’m only to be nice about it this once. So listen, because if there’s a next time it won’t be so civil.”

“I’m listening,” Quinn replied.

“If you say so,” Danny replied. She wasn’t smiling. For someone who _always_ smiled, that was telling. “Grow up Quinn Fabray. Grow up and get over yourself. Do what you need to do to figure yourself out so you not only stop trying to hurt everyone else, but you stop hurting yourself.” Danny fisted her left hand, but kept her right flat against her side. “You want power, fine, but it’s not worth having when there’s no one who will stand beside you when you lose that power.”

“Why haven’t you told anyone?” Quinn asked when Danny had been silent for a moment.

“It’s not my secret to tell,” Danny replied. “See, this is how I look at it. You hide things that would damage this image you believe you have to present to the world. Guess what honey, no one cares. The people who do care about you just end up hurt, yourself most of all. So put up you HBIC façade on all you like, but from what I’ve heard you’re a hell of a lot nicer when you’re not trying to conform to what is expected of you.”

She turned to leave. “Oh, and one last thing. I’m not going to threaten you. If you change, do it because you want to be a better person.”

“What if I don’t know how?” Quinn asked through gritted teeth. No one had ever had the guts to talk to her like this. Of course, no one else held to power to ruin her completely with just a few words said to the right people either. Even if she could do damage control on some of it, the scars would still be there. It would almost be better if Danny _was_ threatening her.

“Then ask,” Danny replied. “Or, if you won’t ask, write it out. Do something to get it all out of your head. Sing it, dance it, cheer it, I don’t give a flying fuck _what_ you do, just so long as it removes your annoying presence from my radar of those-who-require-a-slap-to-the-back-of-the-head.”

Danny opened the door and left. She didn’t look back, didn’t wait to see if Quinn ever left the closet. She went to class and proceeded to ignore the blonde and man-child for the rest of the day. The one thing she did do was inform Coach Sylvester that she wasn’t amused by her newest trick, that she and Rachel were not going to bend to her will, and that the uniforms would be returned to her office by the end of the week.

“What makes you think you can do that?” Sue asked, amused by the girl’s gall to face her on even ground.

“You can’t force us to participate in a sport,” Danny replied. “Maybe if you ask, we’ll consider it. You never know what you’ll get just by asking.” She walked away before Sue could say anything else.

“What was that coach?” Becky asked, confused as to what had just happened.

Sue leaned back in her chair. “I think I’ve not only been issued a challenge, but one by a worthy opponent.” Yes, this would require careful consideration and even more careful planning.

 


	9. Chapter 9

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Silver and Gold

Chapter 9

 _Kiss Me_ by Sixpence None the Richer

I OWN NOTHING!!

* * *

“What the hell Quinn?” Finn was standing there staring at the blonde girl as if she had just spoken to him in a foreign language.

“I’m breaking up with you.” She repeated herself. “This relationship isn’t working out. You’re still hung up on Berry. I refuse to play second to anyone.”

“But what about Prom?” Finn asked. “I thought you wanted to win?”

Quinn did want to be crowned Prom Queen. “Then I’ll win on my own. We’re done Finn.”

She turned to walk away and felt him grab her arm. She spun around to slap him but she was beaten to it.

“She said to take a hike Fidiot,” Danny had her hand around Finn’s wrist. “That’s not an invite to manhandle her.” She squeezed and he let Quinn go. “Good, now buzz off to class and stay outta my sight.”

Danny released him, leaving him to rub his wrist while she rejoined Rachel. She stopped and spoke, her normal grin present even in her voice as she spoke.

“Oh, and Finn?” She waited for his grunt. “Next time I see you or even hear of you touching a girl without her express permission? I’ll use you as a kendo dummy before I hand you over to Santana and Puck. If they leave anything of you, I’ll hand you over to my grandfather and his Marine friends.”

She finished her walk to Rachel and together they walked to class.

“Why did you do that?” Rachel asked softly as she prepared to take notes.

“Which part?” Danny asked, getting out her notebook.

“Stand up for Quinn? I thought you hated her.” Rachel replied.

“I don’t hate her,” Danny replied, “I might not like her very much because of how she’s treated you in the past, but you care about her. That’s enough for me, even if I don’t understand it.”

“I care about Finn to,” Rachel admitted softly.

“Ah, but if he was willing to manhandle Blondie, what would he be willing to do to you or some other girl that he’s bigger than just because things don’t go his way?” Danny asked. “Guys are different, Starshine, and Hudson is one of the stupidest I’ve ever met.”

“He _was_ difficult to talk to.” Rachel admitted.

“Rachel,” Danny touched her hand to gain her attention, “if he was really the one and only, you’d know, okay? Hell, even he’d know. But he’s not and you shouldn’t worry about it. There are better than Hudson out there, believe me. I know that there’s someone out there for everyone.”

“How do you know that?” Rachel asked. “I’m supposed to be the physic one in this relationship!”

Danny laughed. “I just know these things. One day we’ll get it right.” She glanced towards the doorway where a blonde shadow had just ducked out of sight. “Besides, they may be closer than you think. They’re just waiting for the right opportunity.”

“I just wish it wouldn’t take so long.” Rachel muttered.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Danny replied. “Are we going to glee this afternoon?”

“Yes, if only because we have to make certain that Jesse doesn’t either destroy the club or end up dead for making one too many wrong moves.” Rachel replied.

Danny snickered. “I don’t see the problem with the second option,” she ignored the glare Rachel sent her way, “but I’ll still go with you.” She smirked, dropping her voice as the teacher entered. “I have the perfect song for us to do by the way, consider it practice for this week’s video.”

* * *

That afternoon, Rachel and Danny strode into the choir room as if they owned the space. Santana and Brittany, who’d been informed of their plan during lunch, had already claimed the back row. Quinn was sitting with them as she had no intentions of giving Finn any hope of trying to get together again or wanting Sam to think he had another chance with her.

The newly returned Kurt was seated with Mercedes, Tina, and Mike. He watched as the two girls entered, gaping at Danny.

“What did you do to your _hair_?” He asked, trying to take it in.

Danny’s permanent grin shifted to her smirk. “Santana helped me cut it during lunch, you like?” Except for the one streak of blue (which was braided to frame the left side of her face), her head was shaved so that there was maybe a half-inch of hair covering it. It was gelled back, much of it sticking up in spikes as it was too short to lay flat on top.

“Its badass is what it is,” Puck replied. “Don’t knock it Hummel.”

“It’s just surprising is all,” Kurt replied. “It suites you.”

“Why thank you,” Danny mock bowed. “Milady?” She ushered Rachel to the seat nearest Quinn, leaving one open between her and the blonde.

“So does this mean you’re both back?” Mercedes asked.

“Yes,” Rachel replied, “if for no other reason than to keep the rest of you from committing homicide.”

“Drat, there goes our idea babe,” Puck said to Lauren. “Guess we’ll have to go with Hummel’s.”

“Noah, you are not going to do anything to Jesse,” Rachel said firmly. “If you end up in juvie again so close to Nationals I will _never_ make you non-vegan cookies again! _And_ I’ll tell your grandmother!”

“Ouch,” Puck winched, “no need to bring out the big guns Rach.”

“If I knew it was so easy to-”

“Don’t even start Kurt Hummel!” Rachel told him firmly. “If you do, I’ll cancel every single fashion magazine subscription you have!”

Kurt gapped at her. Danny was grinning wickedly. Santana was snickering at both boys.

“Okay, scary Rachel,” Finn stood up, thinking it was up to him to calm the girl down.

“You haven’t seen scary yet Finn Hudson!” Rachel told him sharply. “Sit down!”

Finn sat down, bewildered at what had just happened. He wasn’t the only one. Everyone was staring at her.

“Damn,” Brittany whispered to Santana, “Rachel’s hot when she’s being all dominate.” Santana nodded, eyeing Quinn.

“We ain’t the only ones who think so,” She nodded ever so slightly to the other blonde.

“Okay guys, let’s get-”

“Mr. Schue, Danny and I have a song to perform.” Rachel interrupted him. “We wish to suggest it as a duet for Nationals should we not decide to perform original songs.”

Will nodded, offset by the way Rachel was looking at the room in general. He was afraid to ask what had set her off this time. “The floor is yours.” He went to sit down.

“Thank you, Brad, if you would?” She handed him the sheet music Danny had given her the day before. Originally this was not going to be performed for glee, but Danny did have a point.

Jesse entered just as they were to begin and Rachel pointedly ignored him as she was explaining that if they chose to use the song they would have to rework Danny’s part for the male lead.

Rachel began, Santana and Brittany singing in the echo.

_Kiss me {kiss me} out of the bearded barley_

_Nightly, beside the green, green grass_

_Swing, swing, {swing, swing} swing the spinning step_

_You wear those shoes and I will wear that dress._

Danny stepped up to Rachel and took her hand as she twirled the smaller girl.

_Oh, kiss me beneath the milky twilight_

_Lead me out on the moonlit floor_

_Lift your open hand_

_Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance_

_Silver moon's sparkling_

_So kiss me._  
   
Santana exchanged a brief kiss on the cheek in the back ground with Brittany as they echoed the slow moves that Rachel and Danny had matched with the words of the song. It slowed or sped up with the beat of the music, but it never went fast. The last verse started and the two singing exchanged lines back and forth.

_Kiss me beneath the milky twilight_

_Lead me out on the moonlit floor_

_Lift your open hand_

_Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance_

_Silver moon's sparkling_

_So kiss me_

_So kiss me… So kiss me… So kiss me…_

Danny brought Rachel to her as the music faded and the two froze as if they were seconds away from actual kissing. Santana and Brittany had nothing holding them back and kissed properly this time. Danny released Rachel with a grin as she joined Puck in cat-calling the two and laughing when Santana flipped her off.

Rachel smiled brightly and spun around to face Mr. Schuester. “Will that suffice as our duet for Nationals?”

“I think it’s definitely in the running.” He replied. “Anybody else have any ideas?”

 


	10. Chapter 10

Silver and Gold

Chapter 10

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

Prom night arrived. Santana and Brittany had gone all out in their dresses. Danny wolf-whistled when she saw them.

“Honeys, I don’t even have to ask what you’ll be doing after the dance.” She smirked at them. “Are you going to wait until then would be the better question.”

“Where’s Berry?” Santana said in reply, smirking. “Your date stand you up?”

“Hardly,” Danny replied. She was dressed in a feminine-style suite, blue dress shirt bringing out the thin blue pinstripes in the black fabric of her pants and jacket. Hair in her normal style, she had a black fedora with a blue silk band around it perched on her head. “She and Mercedes went to pick up Sam, I drove here myself just in case we needed a second getaway car.”

“San drove us,” Brittany replied, beaming. “We got to have sexy times.” Santana blushed as Danny chuckled.

“TMI Dancer, TMI,” she told the blonde. “Have either of you seen the others yet?”

San smirked wickedly. “Was a bit busy to do that, or care.”

Danny rolled her eyes. Behind them, a person cleared their throat. All three turned around to find Quinn standing there, solo.

Danny whistled softly. “I’m almost sorry you’re not my type. You look great Quinn, even better without the man-child hanging off you.”

“She’s right Q,” San agreed. “Where is Finnocence anyway?”

“Looking constipated over by the punch bowl,” Brittany replied. “I think he’s glaring at St. James.”

“Oh, wonderful,” Danny rolled her eyes. “Any bets on when a fight breaks out between them?”

“Any bets on what it’ll be over?” Santana snarked.

“Rachel,” both blondes and Danny said at the same time.

“Honestly Q, you should just tell them both that Rachel’s yours.” Brittany told her fellow blonde.

Quinn looked at her in surprise. “W-what?”

“Really Q, you’re rather obvious.” Santana added, wrapping her arms around her own girlfriend as she spoke. “Although why Berry I will never understand.”

“Thank you!” Danny shook her head. “I thought I was the only one who noticed.”

“Are you all forgetting that Berry’s straight?” Quinn asked, reddening.

Danny snorted, amused. “Whatever gave you _that_ idea?” She asked them. She left them with that thought, going over to the doors to greet the others who were part of the dateless group she and Rachel had put together.

She bowed to her friend. “If I may have this dance milady?”

Rachel giggled. “You may,” she took the offered hand and let Danny lead her out to the dance floor. They waltzed, Brittany dragging Santana towards them to do the same.

Quinn watched them and wished she had the courage to do the same. Instead, she found herself agreeing to dance with Finn. She looked at Rachel, hoping the girl didn’t see the pain in her eyes.

It wasn’t long before Danny’s prediction came true. Finn and Jesse got into a fist fight over Rachel, and then the brunette was running after Quinn as Kurt won Prom Queen.

* * *

“Why do you always get everything!” Quinn yelled at her, tears running down her face.

Rachel was surprised. Since when did she get everything? “Quinn, I know you’re hurting right now, the cro—” she froze as Quinn’s hand met her cheek.

Quinn stared, as if she couldn’t believe that she’d just slapped Rachel. She tried to go past, to run away. Just like it seemed she was always doing. Rachel grabbed her wrist, halting her exit.

“The crown should have been yours.” She finished saying. “Please don’t run away Quinn. I _know_ you’re hurting. You deserve better than what life has handed you. _Please don’t run away_.” The last was said pleadingly.

The blonde looked at her, no longer certain what her tears were for. “How do you know?”

Rachel sighed and yanked Quinn into a hug, heedless of their dresses. “I’m a little bit physic, remember?” That got something like a small laugh from the blonde. “However, it doesn’t take a physic to notice just how unhappy you’ve been even before last year.”

Not knowing where it was coming from, Quinn returned the hug. Nor did she know where her asking Rachel if the girl had meant what she’d said the year before. Rachel smiled into Quinn’s shoulder.

“Yes Quinn,” Rachel swallowed the thesaurus that wanted to come out of her mouth, “I meant what I said. I would like to be your friend.”

“Even if I’m not the most popular girl in school or the captain of the Cheerios?”

“Especially then,” Rachel replied firmly. “Those are only roles Quinn, they don’t define you.” Rachel swallowed tightly again. “Do you want to be my friend Quinn?”

Quinn felt a watery smile form on her face. “I think that I do, if you want to give me a chance?”

“I’m glad to.” Rachel replied, stepping out of the hug. She had tears running down her cheeks as well. “I think we’re both pretty messes at the moment.”

“Yea,” Quinn reached up to wipe away some of her mascara. “I’m sorry for hitting you.”

Rachel shook her head. “It’s fine, it happened, and I already forgave you for it.”

* * *

“Do you think Q killed Berry and she’s still hiding the body?” Santana asked, watching as Kurt and Blaine danced in the center of the gym.

Danny snorted. “Highly doubtful. We’d’ve heard the screaming if that was happening.”

“Are they having sex then?” Brittany asked. “’Cause that always makes me happy.”

Smiling, Danny shook her head. “I think they’ll wait to do that, probably where we’ll actually walk in on them.” She smirked as Santana grimaced. “Hey, think of it as karma coming back to bite you for all the times _we’ve_ walked in on the two of _you_.”

“There they are,” Brittany pointed to where the two had just walked back into the gym. “They don’t look like they just had sex…and they’re both still alive.” She smiled and bounced in place. “They’re holding hands S!”

“Lords and Ladies above and below,” Danny sighed, “it’s about bloody time they did something.”

“Wait, what?” Santana looked at the girl.

“Yea, didn’t think anyone else had noticed.” Danny shrugged. “I’m going to go find someone to share the last dance with, you might wanna grab Brittany before some idiot jock thinks she’s free.”

That said, Danny walked over the where the two other girls were waiting. They were sitting out the last dance, at least they were until Danny dragged Quinn out onto the dance floor.

“What are you doing?” Quinn hissed.

Danny smirked. “Rachel’s dads’ aren’t always around to look after her and she hasn’t got any siblings to look after her either. So, take this as it’s meant. Hurt her again, break her heart, let her be hurt in your company, and they will never find your body.”

Quinn’s eyes went to ice. “Is that a threat?”

“A promise.” Danny told her, serious. “She’s my best friend and I love her like a sister. Thus, I will protect her even if she doesn’t want me to.”

“You can’t always be there to do that.” Quinn replied as Danny spun her around. Where had Danny been when Rachel had needed her?

“Exactly, a fact I well know.” She wasn’t even grinning as she spoke. “That’s why I have to make certain that anyone who wants to try for her heart has her best interests in mind.”

“I don’t even know if she wants to be more than friends.” Quinn protested.

Danny chuckled. “I should tell you how we met one day.” She shook her head and glanced at Rachel. “Not many people understand just how special Rachel is. Are you going to be one of those people?” Danny bowed out as the music ended.

Quinn couldn’t even remember what the song had been. Danny had given her a lot to think about.

 


	11. Chapter 11

Silver and Gold

Chapter 11

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

Rachel sighed as Finn smiled at her. “I’m sorry Finn, but I am unable to oblige you tonight or any other night this week.” _Or ever_ , she thought to herself. Where was Danny when she was needed to perform a rescue? “If you will excuse me, I have to get to the choir room to practice for this week’s glee assignment.”

“I’ll walk you there,” Finn suggested, trying to put his arm around her shoulders.

“That really isn’t necessary,” she told him.

“Rachel,” Quinn came up behind them and dragged Rachel away from Finn, “we need your help.” Without waiting for the girl to protest, the blonde was dragging her to where she’d left Santana and Brittany.

“Hey blow-pop,” Santana called at Finn, “why don’t you go slobber over somebody else?” She slung her arm around Brittany and sauntered down the hallway.

“I think B won the bet,” Rachel murmured as she matched her pace to Quinn’s. She didn’t mind that the girl kept a hold of her hand, Rachel rather liked it.

“What bet?” Quinn asked softly, letting Rachel lead her to the auditorium. Finn wasn’t very bright, but he’d probably figure them to be headed to the choir room.

“When Finn would stop moping after you and proceed to once again pursue me. Brittany claimed the Tuesday after Prom. Thus, she won the bet.” Rachel explained.

“Who made the bet and how did you find out about it?” Quinn asked, rolling her eyes at the two girls currently making out in the front row of seats.

“Danny, Santana, Brittany…” Rachel thought for a moment, “Puck, Lauren, Mike, Artie…Tina, Kurt, and Mercedes. As to how I know, Danny told me and I saw Sam keeping track of the betting pool before we separated after Prom.”

“What other bets do they have going?” Quinn asked aloud, not expecting an actual answer.

“Several, if what I saw in Sam’s book was any indication.” Rachel answered. “As to what the bets are on, I haven’t managed to find that information out just yet.” She smiled. “So, what did you need help with?”

Quinn smirked. “Nothing, I thought you could use some help getting away from Finn.”

“I appreciate it,” Rachel told her. “Now, shall we work on our songs for Nationals?”

“What about Mr. Schue’s plan on waiting until we get there?” Brittany looked up from making out with her girlfriend.

Rachel frowned. “While he is our instructor, his ‘plan’ is going to cost us Nationals. So, it is our duty to have songs and choreography worked out so that we have something prepared.”

“In other words,” Santana smirked. “We play him.”

“Exactly,” Rachel nodded her head in agreement. She smirked at them. “I was hoping that you would be willing to assist me in this endeavor?”

“Show me what you’ve got short-stack.”

* * *

Danny caught Puck and Lauren leaving the gym after school. “Thought I should tell you, Brittany won the bet this afternoon and it looks as if Faberry is on the way to happening.”

“Damn,” Puck cursed at losing the bet. “How did we miss it?”

Danny smirked. “How do you think? Idiot waited until he knew Rachel would be by herself. He didn’t account for a certain blonde and her thoughts on his wooing ability.”

“Correction then,” Lauren looked at her, “how did you miss it?”

She gave them another smirk. “I was trading barbs with the demon-woman.” By now, the entire glee club knew about Rachel and Danny being ‘drafted’ into the Cheerios and their defection of said ‘draft’. “So what are we going to do about Hudson?”

“I don’t think we need to do anything.” Puck told her, edging a bit behind his girlfriend. “Rachel and Quinn can take care of themselves.”

“Fine, but I expect you to be ready to help them if they need it.” Danny told him. “Hudson’s planning something, and he’s going to do it at the time that will cause the most chaos.”

“Hudson’s not that smart _or_ that devious.” Lauren told her.

The two walked away and Danny let them. She knew they would come though when it counted. She still thought they were underestimating Finn Hudson.

* * *

Chaos ensued as Sue Sylvester spread her grief-driven rage throughout the school. Danny and Rachel comforted Becky after she was tossed off the team, both of them confused over what was happening to the crazy woman.

Mr. Schuester, of all people, solved the mystery first. It was Finn and Kurt who put together the funeral and got the glee club to sing _Pure Imagination_. It was Rachel, however, that sat beside the blonde woman and dared to hold her hand.

When asked later, Rachel just smiled. “She might not like us and she despises the glee club, but she’s still a person. She’ll undoubtedly still make our lives hell at school.” That got smiles and nods of agreement. “Coach Sylvester loves her sister, and, well, losing someone you love is always hard.”

Danny wrapped an arm around her. “Starlight,” she shook her head. “Come on, let’s get to the wake. Quinn, you need a ride?”

“Yes, Finn seems to have forgotten that he drove me here.” Quinn had only agreed to attend with him because her mother had been busy and her car was in the shop. Even if she had ‘broken his heart again’, that didn’t mean he could just leave her someplace.

“That seems to be his way of treating us,” Rachel took her hand. “He left me at the tree lot.”

Danny frowned. “The boy needs to watch himself, or he’s not going to like what happens.”

 


	12. Chapter 12

Silver and Gold

Chapter 12

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

New York City was amazing. Danny laughed as she helped Santana and Quinn carry bags. Rachel and Brittany were bouncing from window to window, Rachel pointing out what she could see to Brittany who had never been to the city before. Not many of them had and Rachel had absolutely no qualms about telling them anything and everything she knew.

“What did they put in those peanuts?” Mercedes asked, semi-horrified as Kurt joined the two girls.

“I think it might be something in the water,” Tina said from beside her.

“Or the air,” Mike was carrying his and Tina’s bags.

“Shouldn’t we stop them before they wonder away?” Finn asked, ready to drop his bags to retrieve them. He’d wanted to carry Rachel’s bags, but Danny and Quinn had beaten him to it. Instead, he was carrying Kurt’s luggage along with his own.

“Rachel knows this city almost as well as someone who’s lived their entire life here.” Danny sneered at him. “She’s not going to get lost, much less let Kurt and Brittany do so. We need to check in with Mr. Schue at the bus.”

She walked towards the doors, ignoring the boy as he yelped. Glancing back, she exchanged looks with a smirking Quinn as she readjusted her hold on Rachel’s carryon. Since she knew what Rachel had in there, she knew it had to have hurt when Quinn hit him with it. On accident, of course.

The three over-excited teenagers were already on the bus. Brittany was excited to see the ducks in Central Park. Rachel and Kurt were discussing Broadway and every person that they might see while walking around the city.

Will clapped his hands. “Alright guys, are you ready to get started?” He grinned as they yelled out their positive reply. “Great, now I want something from each of you—”

“Mr. Schue, we already have something.” Rachel cut him off. She handed him the packet of sheet music. “Inside you will find multiple choices for a set list, including two original songs.”

He blinked at her. “This is great Rachel, but don’t you think you should let the others have a say in this?”

“We did,” Danny let Quinn beat her to defending Rachel. “Santana, Tina, and I helped write the group number while Mike and Brittany planned out the choreography.”

“Totes,” Santana added in, “Berry even let us chose some killer songs to add to that thing.”

Seeing that they had him beat at this point, he grinned again. “Alright, let me look it over. I want everyone back in their assigned rooms no later than nine-thirty; I’ll be doing a bed check at ten.”

With that, the conversations turned to what they wanted to do in the city once their teacher turned them loose.

* * *

Rachel, Danny, Quinn, and Santana stared at their teacher. Really?

“I’ll switch with Brittany,” Danny hissed to Santana. “The rooms are connected, it’s no big deal.”

“It’s not that,” Santana growled. “We lost those lyrics, but that was meant for Berry and Q!”

“Yes, and the string-bean is going to learn his lesson from me on taking things that don’t belong to him. He had no right to take credit for that song, much less claim it as a duet for himself and Rachel.” Danny took a firm hold onto the girl’s wrist. “Do you want me to switch with Dancer?”

“Aren’t you afraid to leave Berry alone with us?” Santana snarked back, not wanting to admit how badly she did, in fact, want Brittany in the same room she was in.

“Rachel can take care of herself, and I doubt you’ll do anything to her.” She frowned, wondering if she actually wanted to share a room with the other three girls. “You know what, I bet our room is bigger and has a couch. I’ll take the couch and you four can have the beds.”

“Scared we’ll hang her out a window?” Santana smirked.

“No, more like I don’t want to be alone with the female version of Puck, a shadow, and the gossip.” Danny replied.

“Yea!” Brittany hugged Danny hard before barreling into Santana. “Now we can have lots of lady-kisses.”

“And that’s my cue to discover where Faberry went off to.” Danny wondered away, catching sight of the blonde she was looking for.

* * *

Rachel was beside her, eagerly pointing out places on the giant map the hotel had up of New York City. Danny smiled, remembering a much tinier Rachel doing much the same thing with her the first time Danny had ever been in New York with the girl and her fathers’.

She dropped her arms around both their shoulders, still having to bend over a little bit. Sometimes it sucked being so tall, especially when your best friend was at least a foot shorter.

“Your key cards,” she brandished a card for each of them, “we’re all in the same room, including a kidnapped Brittany as Mr. Schue put her in the other room so, since she’d end up in our room anyway, we’re sneaking her in.”

“I could just switch with her,” Rachel replied, both not wanting to offer and knowing that Brittany and Santana came as a set.

“Na, I’ll just sleep on the couch and Lauren can have her own bed.” Danny replied. She leaned closer. “You both remember the song that we lost?”

“Yes, what of it?” Quinn asked, wondering why Danny was being so friendly with her. She was very well aware that she was still on Danny’s ‘watch list’.

“The brainless beanpole gave it to the faun as his own work, a duet for him and Rachel.” Danny replied, hugging Rachel to her to keep the girl from storming over to Finn and demanding retribution. “He’s up to something.”

“He had no right to do that,” Quinn hissed, eyes flashing. She found herself in the same position as Rachel, clamped to Danny’s side by the arm across her shoulder.

“No, and he’ll get his.” Danny told her. “For one, he has to share a room with Mr. Schue, Kurt, and Artie.” They all snickered at that. “For two, the General gave me spending money. So, I say we grab Kurt and keep out of sight of the string-bean. Keep him out of Brittana’s sight as well, ‘cause I don’t want to see an angry Dancer backed up by a vengeful Demon-girl.”

“At least not where there are witnesses,” Rachel muttered. Normally, she abhorred violence. Stealing credit for something she and the three former Cheerios had worked on, however, was an action she was finding hard to forgive.

It wasn’t as if she could pass it off as him not knowing it had belonged to them. Not when she knew it had their names on it. No, she would step in and halt any violence only after the first punch landed. Maybe, since he still hadn’t gotten it into his head that she was no longer interested in him as more than a friend. Although at the moment even ‘friend’ was looking to be denied as well.

Quinn glanced at Rachel in surprise, then she smirked. “I wonder how he explained the sheet music being suited for two female voices.”

“Okay Leo,” Danny grinned, “let’s save the planning for later and grab the others now. I’ll get Fashion, you get Brittana.”

“Please don’t traumatize him!” Rachel told her as Danny walked away. “We need him in one piece to win Nationals.”

“Why did she call me Leo?” Quinn wrinkled her nose in distaste at being referred to by a male name.

Rachel giggled, “She meant ‘Leo’ as in ‘lion’ Quinn, not that you were male-like in anyway.”

Quinn thought about it for a few moments. “It’s better than Blondie at least.”

“Well,” Rachel wrapped her hand in Quinn’s, settling into the taller girl’s side as they walked, “you can be very cat like, and you’re very possessive.”

“Hmm,” Quinn smirked. “So you wouldn’t mind having a permanent hickey?” She grinned as Rachel blushed.

“I’ll think about it, maybe it can join my star tattoo.” Rachel continued walking, stopping only when Quinn’s grip on her hand stopped her. “Are you alright?”

Quinn stared at her. “You have a tattoo?”

“Yes,” Rachel cocked her head, confused, “is there a problem with that?”

Quinn shook her head. “ _Where_?” She was trying to think if she’d ever seen it and just not realized it when Rachel had on one of her revealing glee costumes. She was coming up blank, which only left a few places where Rachel could have hidden a tattoo.

Rachel smirked. “Maybe I’ll show it to you sometime.” They heard Kurt yelp. “But now, we need to get the others before Danny does any damage to Kurt’s mental state.” She let go of Quinn’s hand and continued toward Santana and Brittany.

Shaking herself, Quinn caught back up to her and re-laced their hands together. “I’ll hold you to that,” she whispered into Rachel’s ear, smirking when the brunette shivered.

* * *

New Directions left the hotel as a group, but soon split up as they wondered Central Park. Danny found herself in a trio with Quinn and Mercedes.

“How did we lose two people?” Danny asked, tapping her foot as she tried to come up any places the two missing people might have wondered off to.

“Girl, don’t look at me.” Mercedes shook her head. “I didn’t even see them leave.”

“Ninja plan,” Danny groaned.

“Okay, would you please explain that?” Quinn turned to her. She knew she had to get along with Danny as the girl was Rachel’s best friend, but sometimes she was just plain annoying. And not like Rachel annoying, which Quinn found endearing.

“When Rachel and I were little,” she shot a glare when Mercedes snickered, “we came up with plans of escape and kidnapping-slash-rescuing should we ever need them. The three main ones are Calvary, Pirates, and Ninja.”

“So that’s why you were yelling ‘yo ho and a bottle of rum’ when you carried me off.” Quinn glared at her.

Danny shrugged. “Well, yea. Hello, did you forget who my best friend is? Of course theatrics are involved. If nothing else, they throw off the people we’re either running away from or ambushing.”

“That’s just weird,” Mercedes shook her head.

“No, weird is watching Coach Sylvester and Mr. Schue get along in a peaceable manner.” Danny told her.

“That would be weird,” Quinn agreed. “Let’s head to the lake, maybe Brittany and Santana have seen them.”

The three headed off, Mercedes separating to talk to Tina as Mike wondered over to hang out with the guys. Danny took pictures of the three girls feeding the ducks as they spoke about possible places the two might have gone.

“We should go to Broadway,” Brittany said.

Danny laughed. “Never let anyone tell you that you’re dumb Dancer, ‘cause we should have thought of that. Who has the map?”

Quinn did, and she pulled it out. Danny and Santana quickly found the route that would get them in the right direction of Broadway.

“We should put trackers on them,” Santana snarked as Danny folded up the map and stuck it in her pocket.

“Oh, like a collar! Rachel’s could be pink with little gold stars,” Brittany said with a smile.

Danny and Quinn exchanged looks. Yea, being friends with a couple like Santana and Brittany meant you learned a lot more about their sex life than you ever wanted to know.

“I don’t think we’re that desperate yet,” Danny told her, “but we’ll keep that in mind.”

They began walking, Danny humming absently. Santana was taking advantage of the fact that New York wasn’t Lima, holding Brittany’s hand and even cuddling with the blonde as they walked. Quinn walked beside Danny, watching their surroundings. She was the first to spot the missing duo.

“Quinn!” Rachel ran headlong into her, hugging her tightly. “We did it! We actually sang on stage!”

Kurt was just as busy babbling about their adventure. Danny grinned and ruffled the both of them on the head.

“Great for you guys, but next time tell someone where you’re going to be going.” She told him, amused that Kurt had squeaked when she messed up his hair. “Now, who votes we go somewhere and eat before Mr. Schue decides we need to rehearse?” She grinned. “My treat.”

That was how they ended up in the same restaurant as Patti LuPone. Kurt and Rachel once again went fan-girl on the group, only it took the rest of the girls to convince them to actual speak to the woman. Danny handed over her ancient camera to Quinn, letting the girl take two photos for the singer to sign.

Rachel and Kurt were ecstatic and could barely finish their food. Even Santana, aside from a few comments, wasn’t as caustic as she normally was.

“I’d still like to know what junk yard you got that thing out of,” Santana said to Danny, sneering at the Polaroid instant camera.

“My Dad’s closet,” Danny told her. “Are you complaining?”

“So long as I don’t have to lug the thing around, no,” the other girl replied.

“Not even if you begged me,” Danny replied.

Before anyone could make another comment, Rachel’s phone went off. She looked at it and groaned. Rachel didn’t bother to try and stop Danny from taking the phone to see what had caused her reaction.

“How many times has that idiot texted you?” Danny asked, looking over the various messages and sneering at the text-speak.

“I stopped counting after ten,” Rachel replied. “I stopped replying after the fifth.”

“Why after only five?” Brittany asked. She knew Rachel answered every text she received, even if it was something as silly as Brittany’s thoughts on her cat reading her diary. Then there was the fact that Brittany was the only one who Rachel didn’t lecture on using text-speak.

“I ran out of ways to tell him ‘no’ in understandable terms.” Rachel replied.

“He might be my brother,” Kurt patted her shoulder, “but he’s not that bright, especially when he acts like a spoiled brat.”

“Let’s head back to the hotel,” Danny stood up. “Schuester probably has the set list done by now and we need more than an hour’s practice.”

Rachel stood up as well, taking the hand Quinn offered. Santana and Brittany did the same, leaving the other two to bring up the rear. Danny looked at them and smiled softly. She began humming, Kurt joining her as he saw what she must have been seeing.

_Tale as old as time_

_True as it can be_

_Barely even friends T_

_hen somebody bends_

_Unexpectedly_

They sang softly, voices not quite matching but it worked well enough for them to know that they agreed with what they were seeing.

_Just a little change_

_Small, to say the least_

_Both a little scared_

_Neither one prepared_

_Beauty and the Beast_

Kurt took the next part as Quinn wrapped her arm around Rachel, tucking the smaller girl into her side. Santana and Brittany were doing their own version of this, cuddling with each other more than one cuddling the other.

_Ever just the same_

_Ever a surprise_

_E_ _ver as before_

_Ever just as sure_

_As the sun will rise_

Danny shook her head as she caught glimpses of the four’s faces. They were certainly something else. Santana could be as scared as she wanted to be, but the girl loved the blonde beside her. She took the song back from Kurt. Even Danny knew when she was wrong and when to give someone a true second chance.

_Tale as old as time_

_T_ _une as old as song_

_Bittersweet and strange_

_Finding you can change_

_Learning you were wrong_

Kurt rejoined her for the final verse, wishing Blaine could be walking beside him at this moment. The sun was setting, glinting off windows and street signs. It was a beauty all its own and he couldn’t wait to share it with the boy who was so close to his heart.

_Certain as the sun_

_Rising in the east_

_Tale as old as time_

_Song as old as rhyme_

_Beauty and the beast._

They slowed to a stop, sharing a smile as the four ahead of them turned. Santana yelled at them to hurry up before they ditched them. Danny shook her head and told Santana to just keep cuddling with Brittany.

“Come on Fashion,” Danny patted his shoulder, “next time, we’ll be serenading you and Blaine while you stroll fearlessly thru the streets.”

Kurt smiled brightly. “You just have to ask yourself, which one is the beauty and which the beast?”

Danny chuckled. “I’m going to go with that they’re each a little bit of both. I certainly wouldn’t want to take on Brittany if she were truly angry, nor face Rachel if her temper really broke.”

“But you aren’t scared of Santana and Quinn?” Kurt replied, eyebrow raised.

“Ah, but I know I can take them and I know, more or less, how they’ll react,” Danny snickered, “Rachel and Brittany, they’re the scary ones because I honestly can’t predict what they will do.”

 


	13. Chapter 13

Silver and Gold

Chapter 13

I DO NOT OWN!!!

* * *

Kurt remembered that conversation later as he watched Rachel and Finn singing _Pretending_ on stage. He’d heard from the five girls that the song had originally been theirs, but they had no way to prove it. Thinking about the lyrics, he could see how it would reflect the two couples among the five girls.

_will we a-a-a-always a-a-a-always a-a-a-always be pretending_

He wasn’t the only one stunned by Finn grabbing Rachel and kissing her. He heard the others grabbing onto people. Turning to look, he caught sight of Puck and Mike holding back Santana, Sam and Tina holding back Quinn, Artie and Mercedes were holding back Brittany, leaving Lauren the soul person to hold back Danny.

With Rachel onstage, Kurt knew it was up to him to get the others back on track. Gulping a little bit, he never thought he’d have to do such a thing when faced with four very angry girls. Not that Puck looked any happier, nor was he, but they’d all worked too hard to let some idiot ruin it for them.

“Guys, we can deal with Finn afterwards, Santana, you’re starting us off.” He reminded them.

Santana growled. “Let’s do this, and then I’m ending Hudson.”

“Agreed,” Danny and Quinn both snarled.

Santana took the stage.

_Hey-hey-hey you and me keep on dancing in the dark, it's been tearing me apart, never knowing what we are_

_Hey-hey-hey you and me keep on tryin’ to play it cool, now it's time to make a move and that's what I’m gonna do._

They dominated their second song, swirling off the stage when it was over. Rachel didn’t wait, she went straight towards their assigned green room without a backwards glance. Finn followed after her. None of them let them get to far ahead.

“I thought it was a good performance,” they heard Finn tell her. They also heard the slap.

Danny beat her to it though. The slap was from her tackling the boy into the nearest wall. She held him pinned there.

“What the fuck were you thinking idiot?” Danny snarled. “Are you trying to get us disqualified because you can’t take ‘no’ for a fucking answer?”

“No! I was just-”

“Trying to ruin our chance you mean,” Rachel was crying, not that she’d taken the time to notice. “That was highly unprofessional Finn!”

“But people kiss onstage all the time!” Finn defended himself.

“When it’s part of the blocking you idjit!” Danny shook him. “If anyone blames Rachel because we lose, I’m going to make the nickname ‘Finnessa’ a fact!”

“I was just trying to-”

“You know what?” Danny sneered, “Santana, razor,” she held a hand out behind her. “I get first shot.”

“Alright,” Santana reached up and pulled a blade from her hair. Everyone but Brittany and Quinn gaped at her. “But you better save some for me.” She handed over the blade.

“Wait! I’m sorry! Ra-”

“Don’t talk to her beanpole!” Danny shook him again.

“Danny,” Rachel finally spoke, “that’s enough. You can’t kill him for being stupid.”

“I can at least maim him a little!” Danny protested.

“I agree,” Santana had come up behind Danny. “Especially if we don’t place.”

“Not with so many witnesses around,” Rachel told them. “Plus we need him in one piece when we perform again.”

“She’s right,” Quinn had finally gotten behind Rachel and had taken her hand. “Besides, Karofsky and Azimio have been getting antsy. They can take it all out on Hudson when we get back to Lima.”

Danny threw Finn to the ground, sneering at him. “You get a reprieve for now,” she handed the blade back to Santana, “don’t make them regret it.”

She turned to stalk off, only to be stopped when Finn gave a pained yelp. Everyone turned to see what had happened.

“Rachel said no bitch,” Brittany told the boy. “Maybe now you’ll remember it.” She stepped up beside Santana and linked their hands. “Do we have time for ice cream S?”

“For you babe, anything,” Santana replied, impressed.

They left Finn to wallow in pain. Jesse St. James took one look at Danny and Santana’s faces and stepped aside. Instead, he went to taunt Finn. After all, if he couldn’t win Rachel back at least she wasn’t going to be with the idiotic oaf.

* * *

Rachel was crying in the bathroom. The others could be mad at Finn all they liked, but the kiss was partially her fault. She clearly hadn’t made it clear enough to the boy that she was no longer interested in him. What must Quinn be thinking?

 _Twelfth_. They had placed twelfth! After all their hard work to get this far, they weren’t going any further. It was her fault.

“Rachel,” Quinn knocked on the door, “I know you’re in there.”

Rachel didn’t reply. She had been getting so close to having a relationship with the blonde. Yet why would Quinn want her? She’d ruined everything…

The door popped open. Quinn strode in and closed it on a smirking Santana. Quinn relocked the door. She had no doubt that Santana could always pick it again, but she was trusting that her friend wouldn’t. The blonde plopped herself beside the brunette and pulled the smaller girl closer to her.

“None of us blame you for what happened Rachel,” Quinn told her softly. “It’s all on Finn, unless you wanted to kiss him?”

“What?” Rachel looked at her. “No! I didn’t want to kiss Finn, not then and not now.”

“So why are you locked in here as if you’ve got something to be ashamed of?”

“Because I must have done something, not made it clear that I was over him, something to give him the idea that I would be open to restarting a relationship with him,” Rachel babbled on, trying to get her thoughts out.

“Rachel,” Quinn covered the girl’s mouth with her hand, “I don’t think it was anything you did or didn’t do. Finn has never known how to listen, and he’s been spoiled into getting what he wants.”

“We placed _twelfth_ , how can no one be angry at me?” Rachel asked her.

“Because currently Puck is threatening to hang Finn out the window,” Danny said through the door. “Santana is trying to get it open. Kurt is telling them not to do it because they don’t want to go to prison for the rest of their teenage years. Brittany is trying to make a parachute out of the sheets so that he’ll survive the fall.” She was snickering. “So you might want to come help stop them from committing murder before someone suggests the roof as an option.”

Quinn got up and assisted Rachel to her feet. They opened the door, Danny leaning against the wall with her normal grin on her face.

“Why aren’t you trying to stop them?” Rachel asked.

“I was going to suggest the roof when they realized the window doesn’t open.” Danny replied.

Rachel glared at her. “Danny, we can’t let them kill Finn. I will not have us banned from New York City because he wants to be an idiot!”

Danny sighed. “Fine, let’s go stop them.”

“Why hasn’t Mr. Schue done so already? Finn’s his golden boy.” Quinn wrapped her arm around Rachel, bringing the girl to her side.

Danny snickered. “Well, I _might_ have called a certain red-head and mentioned that our director needed cheering up after we didn’t place in the Top Ten.”

Quinn snickered. That would certainly distract Mr. Schuester for a while. “And the others?”

“Mike and Artie discovered the game room,” Danny supplied for the answer, “Laruen has bet Mercedes a week’s worth of tater-tots that she could win more items from the claw machines. They’re distracted, and will be until their money runs out.”

“Danny, did you rig the claw machines?” Rachel asked her, looking at her friend knowingly.

“Only one,” Danny admitted, “and Lauren knows which one to avoid.” She smirked. “Or rather, which one to send the little kids with quarters to.”

“How did she rig the claw machine?” Quinn whispered to Rachel.

“I don’t know,” Rachel admitted, “it’s not like she needs it to win.”

They arrived at the door to the second boys’ room. Danny let them in, the tall girl taking a seat in one of the chairs to watch the show.

Rachel got them calmed down, mostly by informing them that it wasn’t worth the trouble they would be in if Finn was hurt beyond repair. She then told them that they should be making the most of their last night in the city, and that that was exactly what she planned to do. Imperiously, she and Quinn left the room.

“Girl has a point,” Santana left the window and took Brittany’s hand. “Let’s go to the game room, the others should be making complete fools of themselves by now.”

Brittany left her parachute project to go with her girlfriend, babbling about winning some stuffed duck she had seen in one of the claw machines. Puck dropped Finn and followed them, figuring his girl could do with a snack by now while she beat Mercedes in their little bet.

“Come on Kurt, I saw some computers downstairs with webcams.” Danny stood up. “Let’s go see if they work. If not, there’s a fashion show next door I’m pretty certain we can sneak into.”

Finn watched them go. “What about me?” he whined.

“Learn to knit?” Danny suggested, closing the door behind them as they left.

 


	14. Chapter 14

Silver and Gold

Chapter 14

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

Back in Lima, things more or less returned to normal as summer approached. It took three tries, but Karofsky finally agreed to leave most of the glee club alone so long as he could still slushie Finn to his heart’s content. As no one was particularly pleased with the boy, they didn’t stop him although Quinn (completely due to Rachel’s asking for it), limited it to once a day at max.

Finn wasn’t happy, but then his ex-girlfriends were together and ignoring him. All of his friends were angry at him for kissing Rachel onstage and damaging their chances at making it into the top ten. Karofsky used him for target practice. There wasn’t much to make him happy and his childish temper tantrums didn’t make anyone inclined to help him.

As for everyone else, they teased Sam and Mercedes for trying to hide their relationship. Rachel was already trying to plan their set lists for the coming year. Trying, since Quinn was very good at distracting her and keeping her occupied with other things.

* * *

“You four! Front and center, now!”

The Unholy Trinity and Rachel jumped at Coach Sylvester’s commands. Impulsively, Quinn wrapped her arm around Rachel, glaring at the older blonde in warning. Sue smirked, mildly impressed.

“On the field, after school, don’t show up and you’ll be serving detentions with me for the entire summer.” Sue turned and strode away.

Rachel twitched. “Did she just demand that we, all of us, attend Cheerios practice?”

“Yep,” Brittany nodded. “Do we really have to go to detention during the summer?” The dancer pouted.

“That crazy woman would probably make it happen,” Quinn sighed, annoyed. She didn’t even know if she _wanted_ to rejoin the Cheerios again.

“Britt and I were already going to go,” Santana shrugged at the other couple’s looks. “Hey, someone’s gotta keep the idiot masses in line.”

Rachel sighed. “I thought I’d gotten out of that mess. Maybe we shouldn’t have made those videos…”

“Mess?” Quinn looked at her girlfriend. “You _don’t_ want to be on the Cheerios?”

“Seeing as they have, as a whole, done nothing but make my life miserable?” Rachel nodded her head. “Why make more of a target of myself?” She blushed. “Besides, how long until one of you figured out my crush on Quinn if I was around you most of the time?”

Brittany shrugged. “I’ve known since freshman year.”

They all turned to look at her. Santana smirked.

“Told you my girl was a genius.”

* * *

Danny was standing at the sidelines of the football field after school. In defiance of Coach Sylvester, she was wearing grey sweatpants and a black t-shirt with an x’ed-out pom-pom on the front. She also had a clipboard, a whistle, and a spray bottle on hand. Rachel hoped the bottle had water in it.

Becky had taken the four of them aside and stood guard until they came out of the training room with Cheerio uniforms on. Rachel was trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to stay hidden behind Quinn and Brittany. This stopped when she spotted Danny.

“Danny! What are you doing?” Rachel was eying the other Cheerios that were gathered further away.

Danny smirked. “Coach Sylvester and I have reached an understanding of sorts.”

“And what would that be?” Santana asked, amused by the t-shirt.

“I don’t have to be a Cheerio, but I have to train them.” Danny’s grin was absolutely evil. “I’m sorry Starlight, but I wasn’t able to convince her to leave you out of this.”

“That’s alright,” Rachel sighed. “Just stop her from killing me when I get slushied in uniform.”

Quinn growled. “No one would _dare_ ,” she glared at Danny.

Danny raised her hands, clipboard held in one hand. “Hey, I may or may not have demolished the slushie machines with help from a few people. Don’t glare at me Leo, I’m not about to let anybody get slushied.” She paused. “Except maybe JewFro and Fidiot, but there’re extenuating circumstances related to them.”

“If anyone tries, they’ll get theirs,” Brittany nodded. Then she beamed brightly. “Does this mean we get to watch Drill Sergeant?”

Danny chuckled. “Yep, but you guys are out there too because you have to learn the moves to use them in making up routines. Rachel, you’re with me for a demonstration.”

Rachel sighed. “Didn’t you toss me around enough in gym glass today?”

“Starlight, that was nothing.” Danny shook her head. “Plus, you know more than the majority of girls here.” She smirked, “in fact, if they don’t listen, Coach already said you can call them out and strip them down. She’ll be watching from the stands with Becky while the five of us run practice.”

Santana matched grins with Danny. Slowly, Quinn joined them in smiling. Brittany looked between them, catching Rachel’s eyes.

“They’re a little scary, totally hot, but scary when they all agree on something.”

Rachel nodded. “Yes, an accurate description Brittany.”

Practice that afternoon was, depending on who you talked to, a rare form of entertainment, torture, or basic training. Sue, watching from the stands, found herself pleased with how her new drill sergeant was running the majority of girls into the ground (and this included spraying them with the water bottle when they talked-back). When it came to Danny teaching them actual moves to be combined with gymnastics, Sue was even more pleased to see that the three traitors and Berry were outshining even the most veteran members of the squad, not to mention getting to witness the humiliation of the squad as Berry lectured them on their shortcomings.

Danny, Santana, and Quinn danced circles around the squad throughout practice. Brittany and Rachel joined them, mostly without choice as they proved to be able to outdo even the seniors. Finally, to the relief of the rest of the squad, Danny called a halt.

“Alright, that’s it for today,” she smiled cheerily at them, “I expect to see all of you at five AM, Monday thru Friday, throughout the summer for this same practice. Then, at seven PM we will reconvene on those days to go over actual cheer routines. On Saturday, we will meet at the pool for practice at seven AM. Sundays, you’ll get to relax and recuperate for the next round.”

“Welcome to Boot Camp ladies, enjoy your stay,” Rachel added cheekily, grinning widely at the groaning girls. To enforce this, she bounced in place as if she was ready to continue on. Beside her, Brittany was doing the same.

“I think they think we’re all insane,” Quinn commented as the other girls dragged themselves into the locker room.

“Think they’re praying for Coach to come back yet?” Santana smirked as she watched the older woman coming towards them with Becky on her heels.

“If not, they will be by the end of summer,” Danny replied. “Did that meet your expectations Coach Sylvester?”

“Barely,” Sue snarked. “Get cleaned up, and I want a full report by tomorrow.”

“Yes Ma’am!” Danny saluted, dashing off to get her things. The others followed before the woman could decide that they could clean up the field.

* * *

The summer seemed to fly by as the days were filled with cheer practice, dates, glee get-togethers, trips to the mall, double or even triple dates with Brittany, Santana, Kurt, and Blaine, or just hanging out with Danny filming music videos. The summer between junior and senior year had quickly become Rachel’s favorite in her entire life so far.

Currently, they were all relaxing around Quinn’s pool enjoying their rare afternoon free from cheer boot camp.

“School starts in two weeks,” Rachel commented lazily, tracing random patterns across Quinn’s abdomen while they cuddled on a deck chair.

“Senior year,” Brittany sighed, stretching out languidly before bringing Santana closer as they mirrored Quinn and Rachel’s positions on another deck chair. “Do you think it’ll be as dramatic as the last two years?”

“New swim coach, the four girls on top paired up, Mr. Schuester still addicted to hair gel, Coach Sylvester’s plans for her canon,” Danny listed off from where she was floating in the pool. “Of course it’s going to be dramatic.”

“I don’t think I’d change anything though.” Quinn tried to pull Rachel closer even though there wasn’t any space between them to begin with.

“Well, I would change one thing,” Rachel commented softly.

“Oh, and what would that be Midget?” Santana asked, wondering why they’d started this conversation.

“Finn,” Rachel replied, “getting a clue or a brain or _something_ that tells him I don’t belong to him.”

“My Rachel,” Quinn grumbled, nuzzling into Rachel’s neck. They’d cut her hair so it was short and fluffy (Brittany squealing that she looked like a lion, which she acted like sometimes when it came to Rachel) and bits of it fluffed out in the barely there breeze.

“Yes,” Rachel agreed, “your Rachel.” She couldn’t help it that she found possessive Quinn incredibly hot and utterly adorable.

Santana snorted before she was shaking in laughter. They were adorable, although she’d never tell them that. Brittany giggled to.

“Somehow, I don’t see that happening.” Santana snarked after she had control of her giggles. “Finnocence wouldn’t know a clue if it shot him out of Coach’s canon.”

“Is it sad that she’d be able to convince him to actually do it?” Brittany asked innocently. The others stared at her a moment before they all burst into laughter, Brittany joining them. She loved theses people, mostly because they got her.

“Oh B,” Danny shook her head. “I don’t think it’d be half so funny if you weren’t right. However, I don’t think he’d fit.”

“Probably not,” Brittany agreed. “San, I wanna go feed the ducks.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Santana got up and held out her hand. “We’ll leave these losers to their sad attempts at tanning.”

“Aw, you know you like us Demon-girl,” Danny joked, climbing out of the pool. “I’ve got to split too though; Grandpa wants to spend quality time with his granddaughters.”

The three girls said their goodbyes to the still cuddling couple. Quinn and Rachel just continued to lay there, comfortable.

“Hm, we should probably go inside soon so you won’t burn.” Rachel said softly, not really wanting to get up.

“True,” Quinn hated being so pale sometimes. One would think with all the time she spent outside she would be able to gain some sort of tan instead of just turning various shades of pink and red. “Don’t wanna move though.”

“Me either,” Rachel murmured. “We should though.”

“Mmm…” was Quinn’s only reply.

THE END

There is an epilogue, but you don't have to read it in order to complete the story. It's just a short tidbit. I am posting it for those who read this on FF.net before it was taken down by the site.


	15. Epilouge

Silver and Gold

Epilogue

I DO NOT OWN!

* * *

“Why is Mommy so red in this picture Mama?”

Rachel turned to look at what her daughter was talking about. She smiled at the picture Maria was holding up.

“We fell asleep outside at Grandma Judy’s house,” Rachel explained, going over to pick up the six-year old and take the picture from her.

“And Mommy turned into a lobster like Mason does!” Maria giggled. Her older brother Mason was as pale as their blonde mother.

Rachel nodded, refraining from giggling at her daughter’s description. Danny was at fault for that, as she always teased Quinn about being so pale. Santana wasn’t any better, so she got some of the blame as well.

“Yes, I suppose it could be put that way.” Rachel agreed. “Where did you find this Maria?”

“In the big box of pictures that Aunt Danny sent us,” Maria replied. “There’s one of Aunt San and Aunt Britt where they’re dressed up as Belle and the Beast! Was that for Halloween? What did you and Mommy dress up as?”

Rachel shook he head. “I’m certain if we look, we’ll find a picture of us from that year. Shall we put a scrap book together?”

“Yea!” Maria replied, excited at the opportunity to get messy with her mama. “We can surprise Mommy and Danny when they get home!”

Quinn had taken Mason with her to take pictures around Chicago. They would be back by day after next, so it gave them plenty of time to finish.

“That is a very good idea.” Rachel agreed.

She smiled to herself as Maria wiggled out of her arms and raced out to the living room to get the box of pictures. Rachel went to get her crafting supplies, thinking about the other pictures that Danny had sent them.

How her friend had ended up with the majority of pictures from senior year of high school and freshman year of college, Rachel still didn’t know. However, it was no surprise for the other woman to send them to her when she was cleaning out her apartment from the yearly (so she claimed, Rachel knew for a fact that sometimes cleaning Danny’s home revealed things kept over several years) house cleaning she did to make room for her newest job.

Even so, it was nice to see memories like Halloween (she and Quinn had gone as Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder, with Rachel gender-bending Flynn as Santana had the Beast), Nationals in Chicago, Christmas at the soup kitchen, WMHS’s production of _West Side Story_ , Spring Break in NYC courtesy of their parents, and dozens of other things again. Danny had had pictures that she and Quinn did not, and there were even a few from the past decade that Danny had been meaning to give to them.

“Mama, when is Aunt Danny going to visit again?” Maria looked up at her brunette mother. “Could we make her a scrap book too?”

“Of course we can,” Rachel answered, “and she’s going to be here for Christmas and New Year’s like always.”

“That’s not for forever!” Maria complained. “Why can’t she live closer like Aunt Britt and Aunt San or Uncle Kurt and Uncle Blaine and all the cousins?”

“Because her job has her located in England right now,” Rachel answered.

“It’s still going to be forever until she comes back.” Maria pouted.

“Who’s going to forever in coming to visit?” Quinn asked, coming in with their son behind her happily carrying her camera bag.

“Mommy!” Maria was up and attached to Quinn before the blonde was fully in the room. “You’re back early!” She let go of Quinn to half-tackle her brother in greeting.

“We’re talking about Danny,” Rachel kissed her wife hello. “You’re back early, did everything go alright?”

“I finished early and we decided to surprise you.” Quinn replied, grinning widely.

“We?” Rachel looked at where her children were chasing each other around the living room. Quinn’s bag was safely placed on the nearby table.

“Q, leaving us with the bags so you can kiss on Rea isn’t a nice way to treat your friends!”

“Danny?”

“Aunt Danny!” Came Maria’s happy squeal.

“What are we, invisible?” Santana could be heard complaining.

“We’re not invisible San,” Brittany replied, coming into the kitchen carrying Abby, her and Santana’s youngest daughter. Their oldest child, another girl named Chloe who was Maria’s age, had already claimed right of place on Danny’s shoulders. “Danny’s just been gone for a long time.”

“Hey, I called!” Danny defended herself. “Yet you all leave me to suffer the wrath of the tiny ones!”

Despite what she said, she was already crawling around the floor with all three children playing some kind of game as she listened to them babble at her.

Rachel simply shook her head. The scrap book would just have to wait. Instead, she turned to Quinn.

“So, how was your trip?”

“Who cares?” Santana interrupted, “We’ve got news.”

Danny turned her attention to the four other women in the house. Smiling, she just shook her head as they fell into their normal patterns of interactions. Some things would never change, and for that she was glad.

“Okay, so who wants to hear about England?”

The kids needed to be distracted anyway.

 


End file.
